THE 

TjEadees  of  public  opinion 


IX 


lEELAND : 


SWIFT-  riOOD  -G  RATTAN-O'CONNELL 


BT 


WILLIAJI    EDWARD    HARTPOLE    LECKY,    M.A. 


*  The  brc«th  of  Liberty,  like  the  uord  of  tho  holy  man,  will  not 
die  with  the  prophet,  but  will  survive  him.'— Geattas. 


NEW  YORK: 
APPLETON    AND    COMPANY, 

54  9    k    55  1    BROADWAY. 

18:0. 


TV? 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

JONATHAN  SWIFT       .  .  ,  .1 


HENRY  FLOOD G3 


HENRY  GRATTAN        .,.-..     104 


DANIFJj  O'CONNELL       ...  ,  .  223 


INTRODUCTION. 


In  eepublishing  the  following  sketches,  which  first 
appeared  anonymously  many  years  ago,  I  am  yielding 
in  part  to  the  request  of  many  friends  in  Ireland  and 
elsewhere  who  have  been  good  enough  to  regret  the  dif- 
ficulty of  procuring  them  ;  and  in  part  also  to  a  feeling 
tliat  at  the  present  moment  their  appearance  might  not 
be  wholly  useless  or  inopportune.  At  a  time  when  the 
Kepeal  movement  which  was  suspended  by  the  famine 
is  manifestly  reviving;  when  the  establishment  of  reli- 
gious equality  has  removed  the  old  lines  of  party  con- 
troversy, and  prepared  tlie  way  for  new  combinations  ; 
wlien  security  of  tenure,  increased  material  prosperity, 
the  spread  of  education,  and  the  approaching  triumph 
of  tlie  ballot,  have  given  a  new  weight  and  indepen- 
dence to  tlic  masses  of  the  people  ;  and  when,  at  tbe 
same  time,  a  disloyalty  in  some  respects  of  a  more 
malignant  type  than  tliat  of  any  former  period  has 
widely  permeated  their  ranks,  it  is  surely  not  unadvis- 
able  to  recall  the  leading  fticts  of  the  great  struggle  of 
Irish  nationality.  The  present  of  a  nation  can  only 
bo  explained  by  its  past ;  and  in  dealing  with  strong 
sentiments  of  disloyalty  and    discontenjt,  it  is  of  the 


Viii  INTRODUCTION. 

utmost  importance  to  trace  the  historical  causes  to 
which  they  may  be  due. 

There  are  no  errors  in  politics  more  common  or 
more  fatal  than  the  political  pedantry  which  esti- 
mates institutions  exclusively  by  their  abstract  merits, 
without  any  regard  to  tlie  special  circumstances, 
wishes,  or  cliaracters  of  the  nations  for  which  they 
are  intended,  and  the  political  materialism  which 
refuses  to  recognise  any  of  what  are  called  senti- 
mental grievances.  Political  institutions  are  essen- 
tially organic  things,  and  tiieir  success  depends,  not 
merely  on  their  intrinsic  excellence,  but  also  on  the 
degree  in  which  they  harmonise  >vith  the  traditions 
and  convictions,  and  take  root  in  the  affections  of  the 
people.  Every  statesman  wlio  is  worthy  of  the  name 
will  carefully  calculate  the  effect  of  his  measures  upon 
opinion,  will  esteem  the  creation  of  a  strong,  healthy, 
and  loyal  public  spirit  one  of  the  highest  objects  of 
legislation,  and  will  look  upon  the  diseases  of  public 
opinion  as  among  the  greatest  evils  of  the  State. 

There  is,  perhaps,  no  government  in  the  world  which 
succeeds  more  admirably  in  the  functions  of  eliciting, 
sustaining,  and  directing  public  opinion  than  that  of 
England.  It  does  not,  it  is  true,  escape  its  full  share 
of  hostile  criticism,  and,  indeed,  rather  signally  illus- 
trates the  saying  of  Bacon,  tliat  'the  best  governments 
arc  always  subject  to  be  like  the  finest  crystals,  in 
wliich  every  icicle  and  grain  is  seen  which  in  a  fouler 
stone  is  never  perceived  ;'  but  whatever  charges  may 
be  brouglit  against  the  balance  of  its  powers,  or  against 
its  legislative  efficiency,  few  men  "will  question  its 
eminent  success  as  an  organ  of  public  opinion.  In 
England   an    "even    disproportionate    amount    of    the 


INTRODUCTION.  ix 

national  talent  takes  the  direction  of  politics.  The 
pulse  of  an  energetic  national  life  is  felt  in  every  quarter 
of  the  land.  The  debates  of  Parliament  are  followed 
with  a  warm,  constant,  and  intelligent  interest  by  all 
sections  of  tlie  community.  It  draws  all  classes  within 
the  circle  of  political  interests,  and  is  the  centre  of  a 
strong  and  steady  patriotism  equally  removed  from  llie 
apathy  of  many  continental  nations  in  time  of  calm, 
and  from  their  feverish  and  spasmodic  energy  in  time 
of  excitement.  Its  decisions,  if  not  instantly  accepted, 
never  fail  to  have  a  profound  and  a  calming  influence  on 
the  public  mind.  It  is  the  safety-valve  of  the  nation. 
The  discontents,  the  suspicious,  the  peccant  humours 
that  agitate  the  people  find  there  their  vent,  their  reso- 
lution, and  their  end. 

It  is  impossible,  I  think,  not  to  be  struck  by  the 
contrast  which  in  this  respect  Ireland  presents  to  Eng- 
land. If  the  one  country  furnishes  us  with  an  admir- 
able example  of  the  action  of  a  liealthy  public  opinion, 
tlie  other  supplies  us  with  the  most  unequivocal  signs 
of  its  disease.  The  Imperial  Parliament  exercises  for 
Ireland  legislative  functions,  but  it  is  almost  powerless 
upon  opinion — it  allays  no  discontent,  and  attracts  no 
affection.  Political  talent,  whicli  for  many  years  was 
at  least  as  abundant  among  Irishmen  as  in  any  equally 
numerous  section  of  the  people,  has  been  steadily  de- 
clining ;  and  the  marked  decadence  in  this  respect 
among  the  representatives  of  the  nation  reflects  but 
too  truly  the  absence  of  public  spirit  in  their  consti- 
tuents. The  upper  classes  liave  lost  their  sympatliy 
with  and  their  moral  ascendency  over  their  tenants^ 
and  are  thrown  for  the  most  part  into  a  policy  of  mere 
obstruction.     Tlie  genuine  national  enthusiasm  never 


X  IKTRODUCTION. 

flows  in  the  channel  of  imperial  politics.  With  great 
multitudes  sectarian  considerations  have  entirely  super- 
seded national  ones,  and  tlieir  representatives  are  ac- 
customed systematically  to  subordinate  all  party  and 
all  political  questions  to  ecclesiastical  interests ;  and 
while  calling  tliemselves  Liberals,  they  make  it  the  main 
object  of  their  home  politics  to  separate  the  different 
classes  of  their  fellow-countrymen  during  the  period  of 
their  education,  and  the  main  object  of  their  foreign 
policy  to  support  the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope. 
With  another  and  a  still  larger  class  the  prevailing 
feeling  seems  to  be  an  indifference  to  all  Parliamentary 
proceedings ;  an  utter  scepticism  about  constitutional 
means  of  realising  their  ends ;  a  blind,  persistent  hatred 
of  Eugland.  Every  cause  is  taken  up  with  an  enthu- 
siasm exactly  proportioned  to  the  degree  in  which  it  is 
supposed  to  be  injurious  to  English  interests.  An 
amount  of  energy  and  enthusiasm  which  if  rightly 
directed  would  suffice  for  the  political  regeneration  of 
Ireland  is  wasted  in  the  most  insane  projects  of  dis- 
loyalty ;  while  the  diversion  of  so  mucli  public  feeling 
from  Parliamentary  politics  leaves  the  Parliamentary 
arena  more  and  more  open  to  corruption,  to  place- 
hunting,  and  to  imposture. 

This  picture  is  in  itself  a  very  melancholy  one,  but 
there  are  other  circumstances  which  greatly  heighten 
the  effect.  In  a  very  ignorant  or  a  very  wretched 
population  it  is  natural  that  there  should  be  much 
vague,  unreasoning  discontent ;  but  the  Irish  people 
are  at  present  neither  wretched  nor  ignorant.  Their 
economical  condition  before  the  famine  was  indeed  such 
that  it  might  well  have  made  reasonable  men  despair. 
With  the  land  divided  into  almost  microscopic  farms, 


INTRODUCTION.  XI 

with  a  population  multiplying  rapidly  to  the  extreme 
limits  of  subsistence,  accustomed  to  the  very  lowest 
standard  of  comfort,  and  marrying  earlier  than  in  any 
other  northern  country  in  Europe,  it  was  idle  to  look 
for  habits  of  independence  or  self-reliance,  or  for  the 
culture  which  follows  in  the  train  of  leisure  and  com- 
fort. But  all  this  has  been  changed.  A  fearful  famine 
and  the  long-continued  strain  of  emigration  have  re- 
duced the  nation  from  eight  millions  to  less  than  five, 
and  have  effected,  at  the  price  of  almost  intolerable 
suffering,  a  complete  economical  revolution.  The  popu- 
lation is  now  in  no  degree  in  excess  of  the  means 
of  subsistence.  The  rise  of  v/ages  and  prices  has 
diffused  comfort  through  all  classes.  The  greater 
part  of  Ireland  has  been  changing  from  arable  into 
pasture  land,  for  which  it  is  pre-eminently  fitted;  and 
this  most  important  transformation,  which  almost  con- 
vulsed English  society  in  the  sixteenth  century,  and 
elicited  the  bitterest  lamentations  from  Bacon  and 
More,  has  been  of  late  years  effected  in  'Ireland  upon 
a  still  larger  scale  without  producing  any  considerable 
sufferin<T^.  It  is  following  in  the  train  of  a  natural 
movement  of  emigration,  springing  no  longer  from  dis- 
tress or  from  landlord  tyranny,  but  partly  from  a  healthy 
spirit  of  industrial  ambition  impelling  young  men 
to  the  great  fields  of  enterprise  in  the  new  world  with 
which  they  are  no  longer  unacquainted,  and  partly 
from  a  feeling  of  natural  affection  drawing  the  older 
members  of  a  family  to  the  distant  homes  which  their 
children  have  established.  Probably  no  country  in 
Europe  has  advanced  so  rapidly  as  Ireland  within  the 
last  ten  years,  and  the  tone  of  general  cheerfulness, 
the  improvement   of  the  houses,   the  dress,  and   the 


Xn  IKTUODUCTION. 

genernl  condition  of  tlie  people  must  have  struck 
every  observer.  Ireland  is  no  doubt  still  very  poor  if 
compared  "^vith  England,  or  even  with  Scotland  ;  but 
its  poverty  consists  much  more  in  the  absence  of  great 
wealth  than  in  the  presence  of  great  misery.  It  has 
been  recently  stated  that  while  paupers  are  in  England 
as  one  to  twenty,  and  in  Scotland  as  one  to  twenty- 
three  of  the  population,  in  Ireland  they  are  only  as  one 
to  seventy-four.*  At  the  same  time  industrial  habits 
have  been  rapidly  spreading.  The  custom  of  early 
marriages,  which  lay  at  the  root  of  the  economical 
evils  of  Ireland,  has,  according  to  recent  statistics,  been 
seriously  checked  ;  and  the  standard  of  comfort  is  far 
liigher  and  the  spirit  of  industrial  progress  far  more 
active  than  in  any  previous  portion  of  the  century.  If 
industrial  improvement,  if  the  rapid  increase  of  mate- 
rial comforts  among  the  poor,  could  allay  political  dis- 
content, Ireland  should  never  have  been  so  loyal  as  at 
present. 

Kor  can  it  be  said  that  ignorance  is  at  the  root  of 
the  discontent.  The  Irish  peojile  have  always,  even  in 
the  darkest  period  of  the  penal  laws,  been  greedy  for 
knowledge,  and  few  races  show  more  quickness  in  ac- 
quiring it.  The  admirable  system  of  national  educa- 
tion established  in  tlie  present  century  is  beginning  to 
bear  abundant  fruit,  and  among  the  younger  genera- 
tion at  least,  the  level  of  knowledge  is  quite  as  high  as 
in  England.  Indeed,  one  of  the  most  alarming  features 
of  Irish  disloyalty  is  its  close  and  evident  connection 
with  education.  It  is  sustained  by  a  cheap  literature, 
written  often  with  no  mean  literary  skill,  which  pene- 
trates into  every  village,  gives  the  people  their  first 

'  See  '  Ffiwcett  on  rauperism,'  p.  27. 


INTRODUCTION.  XUl 

political  impressions,  forms  and  directs  tbeir  enthu- 
siasm, and  seems  likely  in  the  long  leisure  of  the 
pastoral  life  to  exercise  an  increasing  power.  Close  ob- 
servers of  the  Irish  character  will  liardly  have  failed  to 
notice  the  great  change  wliich  since  the  famine  has 
passed  over  the  amusements  of  the  people.  The  old  love 
of  boisterous  out-of-door  sports  has  almost  disappeared, 
and  tliose  who  would  have  once  sought  their  pleasures 
in  the  market  or  the  fair  now  gatlier  in  groups  iu  the 
public-house,  wliere  one  of  their  number  reads  out  a 
Fenian  newspaper.  WJiittever  else  this  change  may 
portend,  it  is  certainly  of  no  good  omen  for  the  future 
loyalty  of  the  people. 

It  was  long  customary  in  England  to  underrate  this 
disaffection  by  ascribing  it  to  very  transitory  causes. 
The  quarter  of  a  century  that  followed  the  Union  was 
maiked  by  almost  perpetual  disturbance,  but  this  it 
was  said  was  merely  the  natural  ground-swell  of  agita- 
tion which  follow^ed  a  great  reform.  It  was  then  the 
popular  theory  that  it  w\is  the  work  of  O'Connell,  who 
was  described  during  many  years  as  tlie  one  obstacle  to 
the  peace  of  Ireland,  and  whose  death  was  made  the 
subject  of  no  little  congratulation,  as  though  Irish  dis- 
content had  perished  with  its  organ.  It  was  as  if,  the 
.Eolian  liarp  being  shattered,  men  WTotc  an  epitaph 
u|x>n  the  wind.  Experience  has  abundantly  proved 
the  folly  of  such  theories.  Measured  by  mere  chrono- 
logy, a  little  more  than  seventy  years  have  passed  since 
the  Union ;  but  famine  and  emigration  have  com- 
pressed into  those  years  the  work  of  centuries.  The 
character,  feelings,  and  conditions  of  the  people  have 
been  profoundly  altered.  A  long  course  of  remedial 
legislation  has  been  carried,  and  during  many  years  tlio 


XIV  INTRODUCTION. 

national  party  lias  been  without  a  leader  and  v?itliout 
a  stimulus.  Yet,  so  far  from  subsiding^,  disloyalty 
in  Ireland  is  probably  as  extensive,  and  is  certainly 
as  malignant,  as  at  the  death  of  O'Connell,  and  in 
many  respects  the  public  opinion  of  the  country  has 
palpably  deteriorated.  O'Connell  taught  an  attach- 
ment to  the  connection,  a  loyalty  to  the  Crown,  a 
respect  for  the  rights  of  property,  a  consistency  of 
Liberalism,  which  we  look  for  in  vain  among  his  suc- 
cessors ;  and  that  faith  in  moral  force  and  constitu- 
tional agitation  which  he  made  it  one  of  his  greatest 
objects  to  instil  into  the  people  has  almost  vanished 
with  the  failure  of  his  agitation. 

The  causes  of  this  deep-seated  disaffection  I  have  en- 
deavoured in  some  degree  to  investigate  in  the  following 
essays.  To  the  merely  dramatic  historian  the  history 
of  Ireland  will  probably  appear  less  attractive  than  that 
of  most  other  countries,  for  it  is  somewhat  doticient  in 
great  characters  and  in  splendid  episodes  ;  but  to  a 
philosophic  student  of  history  it  presents  an  interest  of 
the  very  highest  order.  In  no  other  history  can  we 
trace  more  clearly  the  chain  of  causes  and  effects,  the 
influence  of  past  legislation,  not  only  upon  tlie  mate- 
rial condition,  but  also  u-pon  the  character  of  a  nation. 
In  no  other  history  esjoecially  can  we  investigate  more 
fully  the  evil  consequences  which  must  ensue  from  dis- 
regarding that  sentiment  of  nationality  which,  whether 
it  be  wise  or  foolish,  whether  it  be  desirable  or  the  re- 
verse, is  at  least  one  of  the  stron^^est  and  most  endurinii: 
of  human  passions.  This,  as  I  conceive,  lies  at  the  root 
of  Irish  discontent.  It  is  a  question  of  nationality  as 
truly  as  in  Hungary  or  in  Poland.  Special  grievances 
or  anomalies  may  aggravate,  but  do  not   cause  it,  and 


INTRODUCTION.  XV 


they  become  formidciLle  only  in  as  far  as  tliey  are  con- 
nected with  it.  Wlmt  discontent  was  felt  against  the 
Protestant  Established  Church  was  felt  chiefly  because 
it  was  regarded  as  an  English  garrison  sustaining  an 
anti-national  system  ;  and  the  agrarian  difficulty  never 
assumed  its  full  intensity  till  by  the  Repeal  agitation 
the  landlords  had  been  politically  alienated  from  the 
people. 

The  evils  of  the  existing  disloyalty  are  profoundly 
felt  in  both  nations.     Nature  and  a  long  and  inex- 
tricable union  of  interests  have  made  it  imperatively 
necessary  for  tlie  two  countries  to  continue  under  the 
same  rule.     No    reasonable  man  who   considers  their 
relative  positions  can  believe  that  England  would  ever 
voluntaiily  relinquish  the  government  of  Ireland,  or 
that  Ireland  could  ever  establish  her  independence  in 
opposition  to  England,  unless  the  English  navy  were 
utterly  shattered.   Even  in  tlie  event  of  the  dissolution 
of  the  Empire,  Irish  separation  could  only  be  achieved 
at  the  expense  of  a  civil  war,  which  would  probably  re- 
sult in  the   massacre  of  a  vast  section  of  the    Irisli 
people,  woidd    drive  from    the    countiy  much    of  its 
intelligence  and  most  of  its  capital,  and  would  inevi- 
tably and  immediately  reduce  it  to  a  condition  of  tlie 
mo.=t  abject  misery.     Nor  would  any  class  suffer  more 
than  the  class  by  which  revolutions  arc  usually  made. 
For  poor  men  of  energy  and  talent,  the  magnificent 
field  of  Indian  and  colonial  administration,  which  is  now 
thrown  open  to  competition,  ofifers  a  career  of  ambition 
incomparably  surpass] 
other  European  natio: 
fully  availed  themseh 
is  but  a  small  one,  it 


XVi  INTRODUCTION. 

among  men  ;  for  while  Irish  emigration  is  leavening 
the  New  World,  Irish  administrators  under  the  British 
Crown  are  organising  in  no  small  degree  the  empires 
or  the  republics  of  the  future.  All  this  noble  career 
for  talent  and  enterprise  would  be  destroyed  by  sepa- 
ration ;  every  element  of  Irish  greatness  would  dwindle 
or  perish  ;  the  energies  of  the  people,  confined  to  the 
narrow  circle  of  a  small  and  isolated  State,  would  be 
wasted  in  petty  quarrels,  sink  into  inanity,  or  degenerate 
into  anarchical  passions. 

These  would  be  the  consequences  of  the  separation 
of  Ireland  from  the  British  Empire.  That  such  a  se- 
verance is  almost  impossible^may  be  readily  admitted  ; 
but  still,  in  a  great  European  convulsion,  Ireland 
might  be  a  serious  danger  to  England.  Even  in  time 
of  peace  its  discontent  necessitates  a  heavy  military 
expenditure,  and  the  emigration  from  its  shores  is 
multiplying  enemies  to  England  through  the  New 
World.  In  foreign  policy  it  is  a  manifest  source  both 
of  weakness  and  discredit.  For  many  years  English 
Liberals  have  made  it  a  main  principle  of  tlieir  foreign 
policy  to  advocate  the  settlement  of  all  disputes 
between  rulers  and  their  subjects  in  accordance  with 
the  desires  of  the  latter ;  and  the  fact  that  in  a 
portion  of  their  own  country  the  existing  form  of 
government  is  notoriously  opposed  to  the  wishes  of 
the  people  supplies  their  adversaries  with  an  obvious 
answ^er.  In  home  politics,  the  presence  in  Parliament 
of  a  certain  number  of  members  who  are  alienated 
frn^     '^  -"''  ■-''^f^vocfc  nf +he  Empire,  and  actuated 

li  that  of  the  constitution, 
quires  additional  gravity 
md  to    equilibrium.     It 


INTRODUCTION.  XVll 

lowers  the  tone  of  Liberalism,  leads  to  unnatural  coali- 
tions and  surprises,  and  is  a  constant  temptation  to 
rival  leaders  to  purchase  this  support  by  unworthy  con- 
cessions. Apart  from  the  possible  horrors  of  rebellion, 
the  mere  existence  of  a  widespread  disloyalty  restricts 
the  flow  of  capital  which  is  essential  to  the  full  de- 
velopment of  Irish  resources ;  and  the  direction  of 
so  large  an  amount  of  the  enthusiasm  of  the  country 
in  opposition  to  tlie  law,  and  the  diversion  of  much 
more  into  sectarian  channels,  vitiates  and  debases  all 
political  life.  At  the  same  time  a  constant  fever  of 
political  agitation  is  sustained.  For  a  long  time  it 
was  the  custom  to  send  to  Ireland  officials  who  were 
utterly  inexperienced,  or  who,  on  account  of  their 
characters,  would  have  been  tolerated  nowhere  else. 
This  system,  which  O'Connell  compared  to  that  of 
country  barbers  making  their  apprentices  take  their 
first  lessons  in  sliaving  upon  a  beggar,  and  which  in 
the  last  century  elicited  a  very  striking  protest  from 
Lord  Northington,'  can  hardly  be  said  to  continue,  but 
an  equally  mischievous  one  remains.  The  Irish  diffi- 
culty has  an  irresistible  attraction  to  party  leaders  who 
desire  to  raise  some  question  that  may  embarrass  or 
displace  a  ]\Iinistry — to  theorists  who  have  crotchets  to 
display  or  political  experiments  to  try — to  revolution- 
ists who  wish  to  set  in  motion  some  subversive  policy 
which   they   think   may   eventually   be    extended    to 

*  Wlicn  appointed  Lord-Lieutenant    in   1783,    he  wrote  to  Fox:   *I 
must  confess  tliat  it  is  a  very  wrong  measure  of  English  rr'^'^nt 

to  make  ^lis  country  their  first  step  in  politics,  as  it  -^  tr     Jc    i , 

and  I  am  sure  men  of  abilities,  knowledge,  bus*  -fi<^    "-      I'i'^-e 

ought  to  be  employed  here,  both  in  the  capacity  ......    -;_.Ifutt,  /  ^  '  -;'nd 

Secretar}',  rot  gentlemen  taken  wild  f.^m  "''  ...^'s  .  ''^^^'^  *'^f>f 
debut  in  public  life.' — Lord  Ihtssclls  Life    ''     •     .-'''   ^'   "     ':  « 


XVIU  IKIEODUCTION. 

England.  Writers  who  have  never  even  crofsed  tlie 
Channel,  and  who  are  totally  unacquainted  with  the 
practical  working  of  Irish  institutions  and  with  the  cha- 
racter of  the  people,  dogmatise  on  the  subject  with  the 
utmost  confidence,  and  throw  in  fresh  brands  of  discord 
at  every  period  of  crisis.  i\Iore  perhaps  than  anything 
else,  the  country  needs  repose,  but,  in  addition  to  its 
o^\^l  elements  of  anarchy,  a  torrent  of  irritating  extra- 
neous influences  is  constantly  agitating  it. 

The  three  great  requisites  of  good  government  for 
Ireland  are  that  it  should  be  strong,  that  it  should  be 
just,  and  that  it  should  be  national.  It  should  be 
strong  as  opposed  to  that  miserable  system  which  resists 
every  measure  of  popular  demand  as  long  as  the  country 
is  quiet,  and  then  concedes  it  witliout  qualification  as 
the  prize  of  disloyalty  and  crime,  and  wliich  has  made 
it  a  settled  maxim  among  Irishmen  that  the  favours  ot 
the  Government  are  bestowed  upon  every  class  in  direct 
proportion  to  the  dangers  that  arc  apprehended  from  it. 
It  should  be  just  as  opposed  to  that  system  which  at  one 
time  leans  wholly  to  Catholics  or  to  tenants,  and  at 
another  time  wOiolly  to  Protestants  or  to  landlords, 
which  will  suffer  an  illegal  procession  in  one  province 
that  would  be  rigidly  re  essed  in  another,  and  which 
subordinates  all  questions  of  patronage  or  principle,  and 
even  in  some  instances  the  very  execution  of  the  laws, 
to  the  exigencies  of  party  politics.  By  such  systems 
the  respect  for  law  has  been  fatally  w^eakened,  and  their 
imprisonment  is  the  first  condition  of  political  health, 
in  addtion  to  this,  it  appears  to  me  to  J)e  per- 
fectly evident  from  the  existing  state  of  public  opinion 
in.  Ireland,  that  no  Government  w^ill  ever  command  the 
real  affection  and  h^'alty  of  the  people  w^hich  is  not  in 


IXTRODUCTIOX.  XIX 

some  degree  national,  administered  in  a  great  measure 
by  Irishmen  and  through  Irish  institutions.  If  the 
present  discontent  is  ever  to  be  checked,  if  the  ruling 
power  is  ever  to  carry  with  it  the  moral  weight  which 
is  essential  to  its  success,  it  can  only  be  by  calling  into 
being  a  strong  local  political  feeling,  directed  by  men 
who  have  the  responsilnlity  of  property,  who  are 
attached  to  the  connection,  and  who  at  the  same  time 
possess  the  confidence  of  the  Irish  people.  As  in 
Hungary,  as  in  Poland,  as  in  Belgium,  national  insti- 
tutions alone  will  obtain  the  confidence  of  the  nation, 
and  any  system  of  policy  which  fails  to  recognise 
this  craving  of  the  national  sentiment  will  fail  also  to 
strike  a  chord  of  true  gratitude.  It  may  palliate,  but  it 
cannot  cure.  It  may  deal  with  local  symptoms,  but  it 
cannot  remove  the  chronic  disease.  To  call  into  active 
political  life  the  upper  class  of  Irishmen,  and  to  enlarge 
the  sphere  of  their  political  power — to  give,  in  a  word, 
to  Ireland  the  greatest  amount  of  self-government  that 
is  compatible  with  the  unity  and  the  security  of  the 
Empire — should  be  the  aim  of  every  statesman. 

To  do    this    is,  unfortunately,    extremely    difficult. 
At  present  the  very  materials  and  essential  conditions 
of  self-government    are    in    a   great  degree  wanting. 
There  was  a  time  when  the  attachment  of  the  oc- 
cupiers of  the  soil  to  their  landlords  was  probably  as 
warm  in  Ireland  as  in  any  other  country,  but  a  lon^^ 
series  of  causes,  which  I  have  endeavoured 
tlie  following  pages,  have  greatly  diminisl 
the   schism   of  classes,  and  the  wild   noti< 
subject  of  landed  property  which  have  of 
been    diffused,    constitute   a    serious    dan 
motives  of  interest  that  connect  Ireland  wit 


XX  INTllODUCTION. 

are  sufficient  to  secure  the  co-operation  of  the  two 
countries  as  long  as  Irish  opinion  is  directed  by  pro- 
perty and  intelligence,  but  they  arc  not  likely  to  weigh 
with  unprincipled  adventurers,  or  with  ig-norant  and 
unreasoning  disloyalty.  At  the  same  time,  sectarian 
feeling  runs  so  high  in  politics  that  it  is  probable  that 
one  of  the  first  acts  of  an  Irish  Parliament  would  now 
be  to  build  up  a  wall  of  separation  between  Protestants 
and  Catholics  by  the  destruction  of  united  education. 
Under  such  circumstances  a  sudden  change  of  system  is 
probably  to  be  deprecated,  and  it  is  only  by  slow,  cau- 
tious, and  gradual  steps  that  self-government  can  be  in 
some  degree  restored.  By  steadily  opposing  the  ten- 
dency to  centralisation,  which  has  produced  so  many 
evils  in  Ireland,  by  transferring  private  business  from 
the  overworked  Parliament  of  the  Empire  to  cheaper 
and-  perhaps  more  competent  local  tribunals,  by  gradu- 
ally enlarging  the  sphere  of  local  government,  and  by 
encouraging  and  bringing  into  activity  the  political 
talent  of  the  country,  a  sound  public  opinion  may  be 
slowly  formed.  Local  government  in  Ireland,  in  as 
far  as  it  exists,  presents  on  the  whole  a  very  remarkable 
and  very  satisfactory  contrast  to  the  political  condition 
of  the  country.  The  public  institutions  arc  probably 
"te  as  well  managed  as  those  of  England,  or  indeed 
of  any  other  countr3^  The  magistracy,  the  police,  and 
the  -Dr.or-law  administration  are  eminently  efficient,  and 
the  Co  nparatively  small  amount  of  pauperism  is  partly 
le  good  management  of  the  latter.  One  of 
signs  of  the  deplorable  local  government  in 
has  been  tlie  epidemic  of  small-pox  which  has 
he  general  neglect  of  the  law  about  vaccina- 
in  Ireland  no  such  epidemic  has  raged,  and 


INTRODUCTIOX.  XXi 

the  fact  is  ascribed  cliiefly  to  the  much  better  enforce- 
ment of  the  law.     One  of  the  most  important  recent 
movements    in   the    direction   of    prison   reform   has 
been   due  to   the  success    of  the    reformatory  system 
which  has  been  established  in  Ireland.      Undetected 
agrarian  crime,  the  untrustwortliiness  of  juries  in  cases 
on  which  public  feeling  is  strongly  excited,  the  scan- 
dalous tone  of  a  certain  section  of  the  press,  and  the 
frequency  of  religious  or  political  riots  still  disgrace 
the  country ;  but  the  first  and  last  of  these  evils  have 
been  restricted  within  very  narrow  territorial  limits ; 
the  second  miglit  be  greatly  mitigated  by  the  intro- 
duction of  the  Scotch  jury  system,  under  which  unani- 
mity is  not  necessary  for  a  verdict ;  and  the  general 
average  both  of  serious  crime  and  of  vice  is  lower  than 
in  England.    It  would  be  a  gross  injustice  to  the  country 
to  infer  that  its  political  condition  reflects  accurately 
its  social  condition,  or  that  the  relations  of  landlords 
and  tenants  are  habitually  hostile.     If  the  people  are 
deficient  in   self-reliance,  they  are  at  least  eminently 
susceptible  to  discipline,   their  natural   instincts    are 
aristocratic,  and  they  are  very  faithful  to  their  leaders. 
If  it  be  true  that  the  desire  for  some  measure  of  self- 
government  is  not  likely  to  be  extinguished  or  dimi- 
nished in  Ireland,  it  is  evident  that  many  influen 
are  in  operation  which  must  tend  towards  its  realisa- 
tion.   Of  the  two  great  Irish  measures  which  have  bee- 
passed  within  the  last  few  years,  it  will  probably  beji-ou' 
that  the  one  disestablishing  the  Protestant  Church  ' 
have  effects  little  contemplated  by  the  bulk  of  its 
porters.     The  question  was  always  mainly  an  E- 
one.     Since  the  tithes  were  commuted  into  a  la 
paid  exclusively  by  the  landlords,  the  great 


XXil  INTRODUCTION. 

the  Irish  people  have  cared  very  little  on  the  subject. 
The  Protestant  clergy  were  usually  popular  and  useful ; 
^Yith  tlie  exception  of  priests  and  converts,  few  people 
in  Ireland  grudged  them  their  endowments  ;  and  if  it 
had  not  been  for  English  party  interests,  and  for  the 
radicalism  of  British  Dissent,  they  might  long  have 
continued.  If,  indeed,  tlie  Church  funds  had  been 
divided  between  the  rival  sects,  the  conc^iliatory  effect 
of  the  measure  might  have  been  very  great.  The 
partial  payment  of  the  priests — which  a  long  series  of 
eminent  statesmen  of  different  parties,  from  Pitt  to 
Lord  Kussell,  have  concurred  in  recommending — would 
Iiavc  attached  the  most  influential  class  in  Ireland 
indissolubly  to  tlie  throne,  would  have  appreciably 
raised  their  social  position,  and,  by  relieving  the 
poorer  Catholics  of  their  most  oppressive  burdens, 
would  have  been  felt  with  gratitude  in  every  house- 
hold. If  the  independence  of  the  priesthood  had  been 
fully  guaranteed,  the  Irish  objections  to  such  a  mea- 
sure would  probably  have  been  surmounted ;  but 
English,  and  especially  Scotch,  public  opinion  made  it 
impossible.  The  Radicals,  who  desired  tlie  abolition 
of  the  Irish  Establishment  mainly  as  a  step  to  the 
abolition  of  the  Engli:^]i  one — the  Puritans,  whose 
hatred  of  Catholicism  was  even  stronger  than  their 
hatred  of  Establishments — interposed  their  veto,  and 
the  Church  Bill  was  carried  in  a  form  which  was  of 
'•^tle  or  no  practical  benefit  to  the  Catholics,  who 
^  accordingly  received  it  with  general  indifference, 
its  effect  upon  the  Protestants  has  been  extremely 
t.  They  have  been  cut  loose  from  their  old 
ngs.  The  object  the  defence  of  which  was  a 
nd  of  their  policy  has  disappeared,  and  tliey  are 


INTRODUCTION.  XXlll 

certainly  more  disposed  than  at  any  period  since  the 
Union  to  throw  tliemselves  into  the  general  current  of 
Irish  sentiment.  At  the  same  time,  tlie  representative 
bodies  in  which  the  Irish  gentry  are  learning  to 
assemble  to  deliberate  upon  their  Church  affairs  are 
forming  habits  which  may  bo  extended  to  politics.  In 
spite  of  frequent  and  menacing  reactions,  it  is  probable 
that  sectarian  animosity  will  diminish  in  Ireland.  The 
general  intellectual  tendencies  of  the  age  are  certainly 
hostile  to  it.  AVith  the  increase  of  wealth  and  know- 
ledge there  must  in  time  grow  up  among  the  Catholics 
an  indeijendent  lay  public  opinion,  and  the  tendency 
of  their  politics  will  cease  to  be  purely  sacerdotal. 
The  establishment  of  perfect  religious  equality  and 
the  settlement  of  the  question  of  the  temporal  power 
of  the  Pope  have  removed  grave  causes  of  irritation, 
and  united  education,  if  it  be  steadily  maintained  and 
honestly  carried  out,  will  at  length  assuage  the  bitter- 
ness of  sects  and  perhaps  secure  for  Ireland  the  inesti- 
mable benefit  of  real  union.  The  division  of  classes 
is  at  present  perhaps  a  graver  danger  than  the  di- 
vision of  sects.  But  the  Land  Bill  of  Mr.  Glad- 
stone cannot  fail  in  time  to  do  much  to  cure  it.  If 
it  be  possible  in  a  society  like  our  own  to  create 
a  yeoman  class  intervening  between  landlords  and 
tenants,  the  facilitiec  now  given  to  tenants  to  purchase 
tlieir  tenancies  will  create  it ;  and  if,  as  is  probable,  it 
is  economically  impossible  that  such  a  class  sho'-^  ^ 
now  exist  to  any  considerable  extent,  the  tenant 
have  at  least  been  given  an  unexampled  secu  j^' 
they  have  been  rooted  to  the  soil,  and  tlieir  inte^^  s 
have  been  more  than  ever  identilied  with  those.  *' 
tlieir  landlords.     The  division  between   rich  and  pooi 


XXIV  INTRODUCTION. 

irf  also  rapidly  ce^ising'  to  coincide  with  that  between 
Protestant  and  Catholic,  and  thus  the  old  lines  of 
demarcation  are  being-  gradually  effaced.  A  consider- 
able time  must  elapse  before  the  full  effect  of  these 
changes  is  felt,  but  sooner  or  later  they  must  exercise 
a  profound  influence  on  opinion  ;  and  if  they  do  not 
extinguish  the  desire  of  the  people  for  national  institu- 
tions, they  will  greatly  increase  the  probability  of  their 
obtaining  them. 


THE 

LEADERS   OF   PUBLIC   OPINION 

IN 

IRELAND. 

JONATHAN    SWIFT, 

Jonathan  Swift  was  born  in  Dublin  in  the  year  1667. 
His  father  (who  had  died  a  few  months  before)  had 
been  steward  of  the  King's  Inn  Society.  His  mother 
was  an  English  lady  of  a  Leicestershire  family,  remark- 
able for  the  strictness  of  her  religious  views,  and  for 
the  energy  and  activity  of  her  character.  At  the  early 
age  of  six,  Swift  was  sent  to  a  school  at  Kilkenny, 
where  he  remained  till  he  was  fourteen,  when  he  en- 
tered the  University  of  Dublin.  His  position  there 
was  exceedingly  painful,  and  lie  remembered  it  with 
bitterness  to  the  end  of  his  life.  His  sole  means  of 
subsistence  were  the  remittances  of  his  uncle  Godwin ; 
and  those  remittances,  owing  to  the  poverty — or,  as 
Swift  believed,  the  miserly  disposition — of  his  uncle, 
were  doled  out  in  the  most  niggardly  manner.  He 
found  it  impossible  to  maintain  the  position  of  a  gen- 
tleman. He  was  precluded  from  all  the  luxuries,  and 
could  with  difficulty  procure  the  necessaries  of  li^ 


2  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

Notwithstanding  tlie  extreme  frugality  with  which  ho 
manasred  his  slender  resources,  he  was  on  one  occasion 
left  absolutely  destitute,  and  was  relieved  only  by  the 
unexpected  arrival  of  a  present  from  a  cousin,  who  was 
a  merchant  at  Lisbon.  The  conduct  of  a  young  man 
imder  such  circumstances  often  furnishes  no  obscure 
intimation  of  the  prevailing  character  of  his  after-life. 
Goldsmith,  when  struggling  with  extreme  poverty,  at 
the  University,  lived  in  the  most  reckless  enjoyment, 
spending  what  money  he  had  with  profuse  generosity, 
disregarding  as  far  as  possible  the  studies  of  his  course, 
and  only  employing  his  fine  talents  in  writing  street- 
ballads,  which  he  sold  to  supply  his  more  pressing 
wants.  Johnson,  in  a  similar  position,  grew  morose, 
and  turbulent,  and  domineering.  He  defied  the  dis- 
cipline, but  availed  himself  fully  of  the  intellectual 
advantages  of,  college,  and  astonished  and  delighted 
his  tutors  by  the  extent  and  the  accuracy  of  his  in- 
formation. 

Swift,  like  Johnson,  was  completely  soured  by  adver- 
sity, and,  like  Goldsmith,  he  treated  the  academic 
studies  with  supreme  contempt.  He  systematically 
violated  all  college  rules — absenting  himself  from 
night-roll,  chapel,  and  lectures,  haunting  public* 
houses,  and  in  every  way  defying  discipline.  He 
considered  mathematics,  logic,  and  metaphysics  use- 
less, and  accordingly  positively  refused  to  study  them. 
Dr.  Sheridan  (who  was  a  good  mathematician)  tells  us 
that  in  after-life  he  had  attained  some  proficiency 
in  the  first  of  these  subjects,  but  the  hatred  and 
contempt  he  entertained  for  it  never  diminished.  His 
ignorance  of  logic  was  so  great  that  at  his  degree  ex- 
amination he  could  not  even  frame  a  syllogism,  and 
accordingly  was  unable  to  pass  the  examination,  and 
only  obtained  his  degree  '  by  special  favour' — a  fact 


ins   LIFE   AT   THE   UNIVEKSITY.  6 

which  is  still  remembered  with  pleasure  by  the  under- 
graduates who  are  examined  beneath  his  portrait.  Yet, 
even  at  this  time,  his  genius  was  not  undeveloped  or 
unemployed.  He  studied  history,  he  wrote  odes,  and, 
above  all,  he  composed  his  '  Tale  of  a  Tub.'  The  first 
draft  of  this  wonderful  book  he  showed  to  his  college 
friend  Warren  when  he  was  only  nineteen,  but  he 
afterwards  amplified  and  revised  it  considerably,  and 
its  publication  did  not  take  place  till  1704.  He  also 
acquired  at  this  time  those  pedestrian  habits  which 
continued  through  life,  and  exercised  so  great  an  influ- 
ence upon  his  mind.  He  traversed  on  foot  a  consider- 
able portion  of  England  and  Ireland,  mingling  with 
the  very  lowest  classes,  and  sleeping  at  the  lowest 
public-houses.  The  traces  of  this  liabit  may  be  seen  on 
almost  every  page  of  his  writings.  To  this  period  of 
his  life  we  probably  owe  the  taste  for  coarse,  vulgar 
illustrations,  by  which  his  noblest  works  are  disfigured, 
as  well  as  much  of  that  minute  observation,  that  keen 
and  accurate  knowledge  of  men,  whicli  is  one  of  their 
greatest  charms.  To  the  end  of  his  life  he  delighted 
in  mixing  with  men  of  the  lowest  classes,  and  no  great 
writer  ever  understood  better  tlio  art  of  adapting  his 
style  to  their  tastes  and  understandings.  To  the  same 
period  of  his  life  we  may  trace  the  careful  and  penu- 
rious habits  which  in  his  old  age  developed  into  an 
intense  avarice. 

Upon  leaving  the  University,  the  first  gleam  of 
prosperity,  though  at  first  liardly  of  happiness,  shone 
upon  his  path.  His  mother  was  related  to  the  wife 
of  Sir  W.  Temple,  and  this  circumstance  procured  for 
him  the  position  of  amanuensis  at  ISIoor  Park,  which  he 
held  for  several  years. 

Sir  W.  Temple  was  at  this  time  near  the  close  of  liis 
oareer.     He  enjoyed  the  reputation  of  a  considerable 


4  JONATHAN  SWIFT. 

statesman  and  of  a  very  great  diplomatist,  and  Lis 
character  was  in  truth  much  more  suited  for  nego- 
tiation than  f«>r  tlic  rougher  forms  of  statesmanship. 
With  great  abilities  and  much  kindness  of  heart,  he 
was  too  languid,  unambitious,  and  epicurean  to  attain 
the  highest  place  in  English  politics  ;  and  his  bland, 
patronising  courtesy,  his  refined  and  somewhat  fasti- 
dious taste,  as  well  as  his  instinctive  shrinking  from 
turmoil,  controversy,  and  violence,  denoted  a  man 
who  was  more  fitted  to  shine  in  a  court  than  in  a  par- 
liament. He  described  in  one  of  his  Essays  '  coolness 
of  temper  and  blood,  and  consequently  of  desires,'  as 
'  the  great  principle  of  virtue,'  and  his  disposition 
almost  realised  his  ideal.  He  had,  however,  a  consi- 
derable knowledge  of  men  and  books,  and  a  sound  and 
moderate  judgment  in  politics;  and  his  life,  if  it  was 
distinguished  by  no  splendid  virtues,  and  characterised 
})y  a  little  selfishness  and  a  little  cowardice,  w^as  at 
least  singularly  pure  in  an  age  when  political  purity 
was  very  rare.  He  had  surrounded  himself  in  his  old 
age  with  beautiful  gardens,  and  olijects  of  art  and 
refinement ;  and  he  dallied  in  a  feeble  way  with  litera- 
ture, writing  in  admirably  pure,  graceful,  and  melo- 
dious English,  somewhat  vapid  essays  on  politics  and 
gardens,  on  Chinese  literature  and  the  Evil  of  Extremes. 
With  a  character  of  tliis  kind  Swift  could  have  little 
sympathy.  For  good  or  for  evil,  intensity  was  always 
one  of  liis  leading  characteristics.  It  was  shown  alike 
in  his  friendships  and  his  enmities,  in  his  ambitions 
and  his  regrets.  Though  not  susceptible  to  the  com- 
mon passion  of  love,  a  liquid  fire  seemed  coursing 
through  his  veins.  That  '  SDCva  indignatio '  which  he 
recorded  in  his  epitaph,  the  fierce  ambition,  the  in- 
domitable pride,  tlie  intense  hatred  of  WTong,  which 
he  invariably  displayed,  must  have  often  made  him 


ins   ORDINATION.  5 

strangely  at  variance  with  liis  courtly  patron.  His 
position  was  extremely  galling,  for  he  was  at  first  only 
treated  as  a  kind  of  upper  servant.  He  was  shy  and 
awkward,  and  felt,  as  he  afterwards  confessed,  keenly 
a  word  of  disapprobation  from  Temple.  His  college 
habits  doubtless  gave  an  additional  roughness  to  his 
manners ;  and  the  ill  health,  which  had  already  begun 
to  prey  upon  him,  an  additional  acerbity  to  his  temper. 
However,  as  time  advanced,  his  position  at  Moor 
Park  improved.  He  devoted  himself  most  assiduously 
to  study  for  several  years,  and  thus  compensated  for 
his  idleness  at  the  University.  His  favourite  subjects 
appear  to  have  been  the  classics  and  French  litera- 
ture ;  and  he  read  them  with  the  energy  of  enthusiasm. 
In  1692  he  took  his  degree  of  Master  of  Arts  at  Oxford, 
for  which  University  he  ever  after  entertained  feelings 
of  grateful  regard.  He  also  rose  rapidly  in  Sir  W. 
Temple's  estimation,  and  hoped,  through  his  influence, 
soon  to  obtain  an  independent  position.  He  believed, 
however  (whether  justly  or  unjustly  we  need  not  too 
curiously  enquire),  that  Temple's  patronage  was  very 
languid,  and  he  at  last  left  Moor  Park  in  anger,  and 
proceeded  to  Ireland  to  be  ordained.  He  there  found, 
to  his  inexpressible  dismay,  that  a  letter  of  recom- 
mendation from  Temple  was  an  indispensable  preli- 
minary to  ordination.  For  months  he  shrank  from  the 
humiliation  of  asking  the  letter,  but  at  last  he  wrote 
for  and  received  it.  He  was  ordained,  and  almost  im- 
mediately after  he  obtained  a  small  preferment  at  a 
place  called  Kilroot,  in  the  diocese  of  Connor.  Temple, 
however,  in  the  meantime,  had  found  that  Swift's  pre- 
sence* was  absolutely  necessary  to  his  enjoyment.  The 
extreme  amiability  of  his  disposition  prevented  him 
from  retaining  any  feelings  of  bitterness,  and  he  made 
overtures  which  soon  drew  the  young  clergyman  from  a 


6  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

retirement  that  \sas  as  unsuited  to  his  happiness  as  to 
his  genius.  Swift  returned  to  England,  and  lived  with 
Temple  till  the  death  of  the  latter,  which  took  place 
four  years  after.  During  this  time  he  was  treated  not 
as  a  dependent,  hut  as  a  friend.  He  was  admitted  into 
his  patron's  confidence  ;  his  genius  was  fully  recog- 
nised ;  and  the  bias  of  his  mind  determined  for  life. 
Living  with  an  old  statesman  of  great  experience, 
sagacious  judgment,  and  varied  knowledge,  it  was 
natural  that  his  attention  should  be  chiefly  turned  to 
politics.  His  first  pamphlet — the  '  Dissentions  of  the 
Nobles  and  Commons  of  Athens' — was  publislied  some- 
what later  in  the  Whig  interest.  It  was  extremely 
successful,  and  was  generally  attributed  to  Bishop 
Burnet.  He  had  several  opportunities  of  seeing  the 
King,  and  some  of  tlie  leading  statesmen  of  the  day, 
who  visited  Moor  Park — of  gauging  their  intellects, 
and  correcting  his  theories  by  their  experience. 

On  one  occasion  he  was  deputed  by  Temple  to  en- 
deavour to  persuade  tlie  King  to  consent  to  triennial 
parliaments — a  mission  in  which  he  did  not  succeed. 
lEe  also  attended  largely  to  literature.  He  assisted 
Temple  in  revising  his  works,  and  he  defended  him 
against  tlie  well-known  assaults  of  Bentley.  Temple 
had  rashly  committed  himself  to  the  authenticity  of 
some  spurious  letters  attributed  to  Phalaris,  and  had 
launched  into  a  eulogium  of  these  letters  in  par- 
ticular, and  generally  of  ancient  as  opposed  to  modern 
literature.  The  dispute  had  been  warmly  taken  up 
by  Boyle  and  Atterbury  on  one  side,  and  by  Bentley 
on  the  other.  The  scholarship  of  Bentley  proved 
over.vhclming,  and  his  opponents  were  at  last  driven 
from  the  field  ;  but  Swift,  avoiding  judiciously  all 
direct  argumentative  collision  with  so  formidable  an 
opponent,  produced  his  'Battle  of  the  Books,'  which 


ESTHER  JOHNSON.  7 

was  then  and  is  now  unrivalled  in  its  kind.  But  it 
was  not  merely  the  gratification  of  political  or  literary- 
ambition  that  made  the  last  portion  of  Swift's  residence 
at  Moor  Park  so  attractive.  That  strange  romance 
which  tinged  all  his  later  years  had  begim,  and  his 
life  was  already  indissolubly  connected  with  that  of 
"Esther  Johnson, 

^Esther  Johnson,  so  well  known  bythe  name  of 
Stella,  was_the^e£uted_daughter  of  the  steward_pf_  Sir 
W.  Temple,  but  many  persons  maintained  that  Temple 
himself  was  her  father,  and  they  imagined  they  could 
detect  the  parentage  in  her  features.  The  peculiar 
position  she  seems  to  have  occupied  at  Moor  Park, 
and  the  large  legacy  left  her  by  Temple,  go  far  to 
corroborate  the  supposition.  At  the  time  we  speak  of 
she  was  in  tlic  very  zenith  of  her  charms.  Her 
figure,  which  in  after-3'cars  lost  much  of  its  grac<^ 
and  symmetry,  was  then  faultless  in  its  proportions, 
and  her  biographers  dilate  with  rapture  on  the  intel- 
lectual beauty  of  her  pale  but  not  pensive  countenance, 
shadowed  by  magnificent  raven  hair,  and  illumined 
by  dark,  lustrous,  and  trembling  eyes.  Her  tempera- 
ment was  singularly  serene,  patient,  and  unimpas- 
sioned,  admirably  suited  for  social  life,  and  for  sustained 
friendship,  but  a  little  too  cold  for  real  love,  and  she 
appears  to  have  acquiesced  for  many  years,  -svithout 
repining,  in  a  kind  of  connection  which  few  women 
would  have  tolerated.  But  great  as  were  her  personal 
charms,  her  intellectual  gifts  were  far  more  remark- 
able, and  she  seems  to  have  lived  more  from  the  head 
than  from  the  heart.  She  had  read  much  and  in 
many  fields,  and  her  wit  made  her  the  delight  of  every 
society  in  which  she  moved.  Swift  said  that  in  what- 
ever company  she  appeared  it  seemed  to  be  invariably 
admitted   that   she   had   said  the  best  thing  of  the 


8  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

evening,  and  though  the  witticisms  he  has  preserved 
exhibit  quite  as  much  coarseness  as  point,  her  principal 
extant  poem — that  to  Swift  on  his  birthday  in  1721 — 
fully  sustains  her  reputation.' 

I  do  not  intend  in  the  present  sketch  to  enter  at 
length  into  an  examination  of  the  controversy  about 
the  nature  of  the  connection  that  subsisted  for  so 
many  years  between  Swift  and  Esther  Johnson.  Such 
matters  are  perhaps  given  a  rather  disproportionate 
place  in  the  lives  of  men  of  genius  ;  and,  at  all  events, 
the  object  of  this  work  is  to  deal  with  the  political 
aspects  of  his  career.  There  appears,  however,  to  be 
no  real  doubt  that  that  connection  was  always  purely 
platonic.  They  lived  in  Ireland  in  different  houses, 
except  during  the  illnesses  of  Swift.  Stella  presided 
at  the  table  of  Swift  when  he  received  company.  Their 
correspondence  was  of  the  most  affectionate  character, 
and  Stella  has  acquired  an  immortality  of  fame  tlirough 
the  poetry  of  her  friend.  At  the  same  time,  that 
poetry,  though  indicating  the  affection  of  a  warm 
friend,  is  wholly  unlike  that  of  a  lover,  and  it  is 
curious  to  observe  how  constantly  Swift  decries  her 
personal  beauty,  and  directs  liis  most  graceful  compli- 
ments to  her  other  qualities. 

But,  Stella,  say  what  evil  tongue 
Reports  that  you're  no  longer  young ; 
Tliat  Time  sits  with  liis  scythe  to  mow 
"Where  erst  sat  Cupid  with  his  bow  ; 
That  half  your  locks  are  turned  to  grey. 
I'll  ne'er  believe  a  word  they  say ! 
'Tis  true — but  let  it  not  be  known — 
My  eyes  are  somewhat  dimmish  grown  ; 
For  Nature,  always  in  the  right, 
To  your  defects  adapts  my  sight; 


*  There  is  one  other  short  poem,  *  Lines  to  Jealousy,'  ascribed  to  hcr» 


GOES  TO   IRELAND.  V 

And  wrinkles  undistingiiished  pass, 
For  I'm  ashamed  to  use  a  glass  ; 
And  till  I  see  them  -with  these  eyes, 
"Whoever  sa3-s  you  have  them,  lies. 
Ko  length  of  time  can  make  you  quit 
Honour  and  virtue,  sense  and  vit : 
Thus  you  may  still  bo  young  to  me, 
"While  I  can  better  hear  than  see. 
Oh  ne'er  may  Tortune  show  her  spito 
To  make  me  deaf  and  mend  my  sight! 

Upon  the  death  of  Temple,  Swift  was  oDce  more 
thrown  upon  tlie  world,  but  his  prospects  were  ex- 
ceedingly favourable.  Temple  (who  during  his  long, 
painful  illness,  had  found  Swift  unwearied  in  his  atten- 
tion) had  taken  every  means  of  ensuring  his  future 
prosperity.  He  left  him  a  pecuniary  legacy,  together 
with  the  charge  and  profit  of  publishing  his  post- 
liumous  works,  and  he  liad  procui'ed  for  him  from 
Iving  William  a  promise  of  a  prebend  either  at  Canter- 
bury or  AVindsor. 

Temple's  posthumous  w^orks  were  rapidly  published 
and  dedicated  to  the  King,  who,  however,  took  no 
notice  of  the  dedication,  of  his  old  servant's  request, 
or  of  his  own  promise.  Shortly  afterwards.  Swift  ob- 
tained the  position  of  secretary  to  tlie  Earl  of  Berkeley, 
who  had  been  appointed  one  of  the  Lords  Justices  in 
Ireland  ;  but  a  person  named  Bushe  succeeded  in  per- 
suading the  Earl  that  the  office  should  not  be  held  by 
a  clergyman,  and  in  obtaining  it  for  himself.  Another 
disappointment  followed.  He  was  almost  appointed  to 
the  deanery  of  Down,  but  the  appointment  was  stayed 
by  tlie  interposition  of  Archbishop  King,  who  objected 
to  his  extreme  youth.  Lord  Berkeley,  as  if  to  com- 
pensate for  these  disappointments,  then  gave  him  the 
living  of  Laracor  and  Kathbeggan.  He  remained  for 
6ome  time  at  Laracor  in  tlie  discharge  of  his  clerical 


10  JONATHAN    SWIFT. 

duties ;  and  Stella,  accompanied  by  a  Mrs.  Dingle,  a 
lady  of  a  very  negative  character,  came  over  and 
resided  near  him.  Before  long,  however,  he  was  called 
from  his  country  living  to  partake  in  the  great  political 
struggles  of  the  day. 

In  1710  the  Primate  of  Ireland  sent  him  to  London 
to  endeavour  to  procure  a  remission  of  the  payment  to 
tlie  Crown  by  the  Irish  clergy  of  the  first  fruits  and  the 
twentieth  parts.  He  succeeded  in  his  mission,  and 
he,  at  the  same  time,  found  himself  dra^m  into  the 
vortex  of  politics. 

The  Whig  ministry,  under  Somers  and  Godolphin, 
had  just  fallen.  Harley  and  St.  John,  the  leaders  of 
the  Tories,  had  succeeded  them,  but  their  position  was 
exceedingly  precarious.  The  feelings  of  the  people 
were  ag-ainst  them.  The  chief  political  writers  of  the 
day  assailed  them  with  unsparing  severity;  and  the 
Queen  had,  on  at  least  one  occasion,  slighted  them  in 
the  most  undisguised  manner.  The  age,  as  ]Macaulay 
observes,  was  essentially  an  age  of  essays.  The  press 
was  yet  undeveloped,  the  speeches  of  Parliament  were 
unreported,  but  yet  a  strong  intellectual  energy  per- 
vaded the  nation.  Under  these  circumstances  the 
writers  of  pamphlets,  or  of  short  political  essays,  like 
the  '  Examiner,'  were  the  real  rulers  of  England.  In 
the  composition  of  these  essays  Swift  was  unrivalled, 
except  by  Addison,  and  scarcely  equalled  by  him. 

The  "Whigs  naturally  supposed  that  he  would  devote 
his  talents  to  their  service,  but  they  soon  found  that 
they  "svere  mistaken.  Swift  treated  them  \\dth  marked 
coldness.  He  refused,  at  Lord  Halifax's,  to  drink  the 
'  resmTection'  of  the  Whigs,  unless  it  were  accompanied 
by  their  reformation ;  and  he  at  length  openly  joined 
himself  to  the  Tories.  The  reasons  he  assigned  for 
tliis  change  were  very  simple.     He  had  originally  been 


niS  CHANGE  OF  POLITICS.  11 

a  Wliig  because  he  justified  the  Revolution,  which 
rould  only  be  defended  on  Whig  principles.  On  the 
otlier  hand,  as  a  clergyman  and  a  High  Churchman, 
he  considered  the  exclusion  of  Dissenters  from  State 
offices  essential  to  the  security  of  the  Church,  and  he 
therefore  alxindoned  the  Whigs,  who  had  constituted 
themselves  the  champions  and  representatives  of  the 
Dissenting  interest.  At  the  same  time  he  more  than 
once  avowed,  with  that  curious  frankness  for  which 
he  was  remarkable,  that  personal  motives  contributed 
to  his  change.  Grodolphin  had  treated  him  with  great 
coldness ;  he  had  been  neglected  and  disappointed  by 
(lie  i>arty;  he  considered  that  no  personal  obligation 
bound  him  to  the  falling  fortunes  of  the  Whigs ;  and 
he  met  with  warm  encouragement  from  Harley  and  St. 
John,  the  leaders  of  the  Tories.  He  was  very  poor, 
very  able,  and  very  ambitious,  and  his  interests  and 
liis  sympathies  tended  in  the  same  direction. 

This  change,  as  might  liave  been  expected,  has 
exposed  Swift  to  bitter  attacks  from  most  AVhig 
and  from  some  Tory  writers — attacks  that  have  been 
the  more  natural  because  Tory  principles  have  found 
no  abler  defender,  and  Whig  statesmen  no  more 
rancorous  assailant,  than  this  former  Whig.  But 
although  in  this  as  in  most  periods  of  his  life  Swift 
acted  through  mixed  motives,  I  do  not  think  that  an 
impartial  judge  will  pronounce  any  very  severe  sentence 
upon  it.  It  was  almost  inevitable  that  a  young  man 
brought  up  in  the  house  of  Sir  W.  Temple  should 
begin  his  career  as  a  Whig.  It  was  almost  equally 
certain  that  a  High  Church  clergyman  would  ultimately 
gravitate  to  the  Tories.  Swift,  though  he  disliked 
William,  never  appears  to  have  questioned  the  neces- 
sity of  the  Revolution,  and  in  this  respect  he  con- 
tinued a  Whig.     Nor  was  he  ever  imr^'""^""   """''    "" '' 


12  JONATHAN  SWIFT. 

Tory  friends,  in  negotiations  with  the  Pretender.  But 
in  the  reign  of  Anne,  and  especially  after  the  prosecu- 
tion of  Sacheverell  had  shattered  the  ministry  of  Godol- 
phin,  the  great  question  dividing  the  two  parties  was 
not  the  question  of  dynasty,  but  the  question  of  tests. 
It  was  much  more  a  contest  between  the  Church  and 
Dissent  than  between  the  adherents  of  rival  claimants 
to  the  throne.  Tlie  ambiguous  position  and  divided 
feelings  of  the  Queen  had  suspended  the  conflict  of 
the  devolution,  and  the  injudicious  prosecution  of 
Sacheverell  had  aroused  a  spirit  which  entirely  altered 
the  relative  positions  of  parties.  The  whole  body  of 
the  Dissenters,  and  all  who  desired  the  repeal  of  the 
tests,  supported  the  Whigs.  Tlie  great  majority  of 
the  Anglican  clergy,  and  all  the  classes  that  were 
moved  by  the  cry  of  '  Church  in  danger,'  rallied  round 
the  Tories.  It  may  appear  strange  that  an  intellect 
at  once  so  powerful  and  so  irreverent  as  that  of  Swift 
should  have  been  wedded  to  High  Church  notions,  but 
the  fact  is  undoubted,  and  it  is  an  entire  misrepro 
sentation  to  describe  these  sentiments  as  lightly  or 
hastily  assumed.  The  '  Tale  of  a  Tub,'  which  was 
sketched  in  college,  and  published  in  1704,  shows  all 
the  Church  principles  and  all  the  antipathy  to  Dis- 
senters which  he  subsequently  evinced.  The  same 
High  Church  principles  appeared  in  a  poem,  which  he 
wrote  when  with  Sir  W.  Temple,  in  praise  of  Sancroft, 
in  which  he  deplored  the  condition  of  the  Church,  '  led 
blindfold  by  the  State.'  In  1708  he  published  his 
'  Sentiments  of  a  Church  of  England  Man,'  in  which 
he  describes  himself  as  wavering  between  the  parties, 
and  aiming  at  neutrality,  on  the  one  liand  justifying 
the  Ee volution,  on  the  other  deploring  the  prevailing 
sentiments  about  the  Church.  In  a  letter  on  the 
sacramental  test,  which  appeared  a  few  months  later. 


POLITICAL   LITERATURE.  13 

he  took  a  still  stronger  part  ao-ainst  the  Dissenters, 
and  to  this  letter  he  ascribes  the  first  coolness  of  his 
Whig  friends.  lie  said  on  one  occasion  that  he  could 
not  understand  a  clergyman  not  being  a  High  Church- 
man ;  and  in  every  stage  of  his  career  he  wrote  steadily, 
persistently,  and  powerfully  in  favour  of  tests.  In 
changing  liis  side  in  politics  he  deserted  men  who  had 
neglected  and  ill-treated  liim,  but  it  would  be  difficult 
to  show  that  he  abandoned  a  single  principle  of  secular 
politics,  while  he  undoubtedly  took  the  line  in  Church 
politics  which  his  earliest  writings  had  foreshadowed. 
No  one,  indeed,  can  compare  his  feeble  essaj  on  '  The 
Dissentions  of  the  Nobles  and  Commons  in  Athens,' 
which  is  his  one  Whig  pamphlet,  with  his  later 
writings  in  defence  of  the  Tories,  without  perceiving 
in  which  direction  his  mind  naturally  inclined.  No 
doubt  his  junction  with  the  Tories  in  1710  was  emi- 
nently to  his  advantage,  but  it  should  not  be  forgotten 
tliat  in  his  later  years  he  defended  tests  and  disqualifica- 
tions quite  as  jealously  in  Ireland  at  the  very  time  when 
he  was  endeavouring  to  unite  all  Irishmen  in  their 
national  cause.  Sucli  a  bigotry  is  far  from  admirable, 
but  it  may  at  least  claim  the  merit  of  sincerity. 

The  principal  writers  at  this  time  on  the  Whig 
side  were  Addison,  Steele,  Burnet,  Congreve,  and 
Ivowe,  who  were  opposed  by  Atterbury,  St.  John,  and 
Prior.  Addison  retired  from  the  arena  a  few  weeks 
before  Swift  entered  it,  and  the  latter  was  left  without 
a  rival.  In  many  of  the  qualities  of  effective  politi<!al 
writing  he  has  never  been  surpassed.  Without  the 
grace  and  delicacy  of  Addison,  without  the  rich  ima- 
ginative eloquence  or  the  profound  philosophic  in- 
sight of  Burke,  he  was  a  far  greater  master  of  that 
tfcrse,  homely,  and  nervous  logic  which  appeals  most 
powerfully  to  the    English  mind,  and  no  writer   has 


14  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

ever  excelled  him  in  tlie  vivid  force  of  bis  illustrations, 
in  trenchant,  original,  and  inventive  wit,  or  in  con- 
centrated malignity  of  invective  or  satire.  With  all 
the  intellectual  and  most  of  the  moral  qualities  of  the 
most  terrible  of  partisans  he  combined  many  of  the 
gifts  of  a  consummate  statesman — a  marvellous  power 
of  captivating  those  with  whom  he  came  in  contact, 
great  skill  in  reading  characters  and  managing  men, 
a  rapid,  decisive  judgment  in  emergencies ;  an  eminently 
practical  mind,  seizing  with  a  happy  tact  the  common- 
sense  view  of  every  question  he  treated,  and  almost 
absolutely  free  from  the  usual  defects  of  mere  literary 
politicians.  But  for  his  profession  he  might  have 
risen  to  the  very  highest  posts  of  English  states- 
manship, and  in  spite  of  his  profession,  and  without 
any  of  the  advantages  of  rank  or  office,  he  was  for 
some  time  one  of  the  most  influential  men  in  England. 
He  stemmed  the  tide  of  political  literature,  which  had 
been  flowing  strongly  against  his  party,  and  the  ad- 
mirable force  of  his  popular  reasoning,  as  well  as  the 
fierce  virulence  of  his  attacks,  placed  him  at  once 
in  the  first  position  in  the  fray.  The  Tory  party, 
assailed  by  almost  overwhelming  combinations  from 
without,  and  distracted  by  the  most  serious  divisions 
within,  was  sustained  and  defended  by  him.  Its 
leaders  were  divided  by  interest,  by  temperament, 
and,  in  some  degree,  even  by  policy;  but  Swift's 
genius  gained  an  ascendency  over  their  minds,  and 
his  persuasions  long  averted  the  impending  collision. 
Its  extreme  members  had  formed  themselves  into  a 
separate  body,  and  were  clamouring  for  the  expulsion 
of  all  Whigs  from  office ;  but  Swift's  Letter  of  Advice 
to  the  '  October  Club '  effected  the  dissolution  of  that 
body,  and  tlic  threatened  schism  was  prevented.  The 
nation,  dazzled   by  the  genius  of  Marlborough,   and 


niS  FRIENDSHIPS.  15 

fired  by  the  enthusiasm  of  a  protracted  war,  was 
fiercely  opposed  to  a  party  whose  policy  was  peace, 
but  Swift's  '  Examiners '  gradually  modified  this  op- 
position, and  his  '  Conduct  of  the  Allies '  for  a  time 
completely  quelled  it.  The  success  of  this  pamphlet 
has  scarcely  a  parallel  in  history.  It  seems  to  have 
for  a  time  almost  reversed  the  current  of  public  opin- 
ion, and  to  have  enabled  the  3Iinisters  to  conclude 
the  Peace  of  Utrecht.  Notwithstanding  his  coarseness 
and  capricious  violence,  and  an  occasional  eccentricity 
of  manner  which  indicated  not  obscurely  the  seeds  of 
insanity,  the  brilliancy  of  his  matchless  conversation 
made  him  the  delight  of  every  society,  and  his  sayings 
became  the  proverbs  of  every  coftee-house.  Among 
his  friends  were  men  of  all  parties,  of  all  creeds,  and 
of  all  characters.  In  the  course  of  a  few  years  he  was 
on  most  intimate  terms  with  Addison  and  Steele,  with 
Halifax,  Congreve,  Prior,  Pope,  Arbuthnot,  and  Peter- 
borough, with  Harley  and  St.  John,  and  most  of  tho 
other  leaders  of  the  da}-.  In  spite  of  the  gloomy 
misanthropy  of  his  temperament,  and  the  savage  reck- 
lessness with  which  he  too  often  employed  his  powers 
of  sarcasm,  he  was  capable  of  splendid  generosity, 
and  of  the  truest  and  most  constant  friendship.  Few 
men  have  ever  obtained  a  deeper  or  more  lasting- 
affection,  and  we  may  well  jjlace  the  testimony  of  the 
illustrious  men  who  knew  him  best  in  opposition  to 
the  literary  judgments  of  posterity.  'Dear  Friend,' 
wrote  Arbuthnot  in  after-years,  'the  last  sentence  of 
your  letter  plunged  a  dagger  in  my  heart.  Never 
repeat  those  sad  but  tender  words,  that  you  will  try 
to  forget  me.  For  my  part,  I  can  never  forget  you- 
at  least  till  I  discover,  which  is  impossible,  another 
friend  whose  conversation  could  procure  me  the  plea- 
sure  I  havo  found   in  yours.'     Addison  termed   him 


16  JONATHAN  SWIFT. 

'  the  most  agreeable  companion,  the  truest  friend,  tlie 
greatest  genius  of  his  age.'  Pope  after  a  friendship 
of  twenty-three  years  wrote  of  him  to  Lord  Orrery, 
'  My  sincere  love  of  that  valuable,  indeed  incomparable^ 
man,  will  accompany  him  through  life,  and  pursue  his 
memory  were  I  to  live  a  hundred  lives,  as  many  of 
his  works  will  live,  which  are  absolutely  original,  un- 
equalled, unexampled.  His  humanity,  his  charity,  his 
condescension,  his  candour,  are  equal  to  his  wit,  and 
require  as  good  and  true  a  taste  to  be  equally  valued.' 
Undoubtedly,  in  the  first  instance,  many  of  these 
friendships  arose  from  gratitude.  Literature  had  not 
yet  arrived  at  the  period  when  it  could  dispense  with 
patrons,  and  one  of  the  legitimate  goals  to  which  every 
literary  man  aspired  was  a  place  under  the  State.  This 
naturally  drew  the  chief  writers  around  Swift,  and  the 
manner  in  which  he  at  this  time  employed  his  influ- 
ence is  one  of  the  most  pleasing  features  of  his  career. 
There  is  scarcely  a  man  of  genius  of  the  age  who 
was  not  indebted  to  him.  Even  his  political  oppo- 
nents, even  men  who  liad  written  violently  against  liis 
party,  obtained  places  by  his  influence.  Berkeley  was 
drawn  by  him  from  the  retirement  of  college,  recom- 
mended more  than  once  to  the  leading  Tories,  and 
placed  upon  tlie  highway  of  promotion.  Congreve  was 
secured  at  his  request  in  the  place  which  the  Whigs 
had  given  him.  Parnell,  Steele,  Gay,  Eowe,  Phillips, 
and  Diaper  received  places  or  other  favours  by  his  soli- 
citation. He  said  himself,  with  a  justifiable  pride,  that 
he  had  provided  for  more  than  fifty  people,  not  one  of 
whom  was  a  relation.  His  influence  in  society  as  well 
as  with  the  Grovernment  was  ceaselessly  employed  in 
favour  of  literature.  He  founded  the  '  Scriblerus  Club,' 
in  which  many  of  the  chief  writers  of  tlie  day  joined  ; 
he  exerted  himself  most  er.rnestly  in   bringing  Pope 


HIS   LIFE   IN  LONDON.  17 

forward,  and  obtaining  subscriptions  for  liis  translation 
of  Homer.  He  pressed  upon  the  attention  of  tlie  Go- 
vemment  a  plan  (which  is  now,  however,  admitted  to 
have  been  an  unwise  one)  for  watching  over  the  purity 
of  the  language,  and  he  on  every  occasion  insisted  on 
marked  deference  being  paid  to  literary  men.  He 
himself  took  an  exceedingly  high,  and  indeed  arrogant, 
tone  with  Harley  and  St.  John  ;  and  when  the  former 
sent  him  a  sum  of  money  as  a  compensation  for  his 
services,  he  was  so  offended  that  their  friendship  was 
well-nigh  broken  for  ever.  That  this  tone  was  not,  as 
has  sometimes  been  alleged,  the  vulgar  insolence  of  an 
upstart,  is  sufficiently  proved  by  the  deep  attachment 
manifested  towards  him  by  both  Harley  and  St.  John 
long  after  their  political  connection  had  terminated. 

During  all  this  time  Swift  kept  up  a  continual  cor- 
respondence with  Stella,  in  the  shape  of  a  Journal, 
recording  with  the  utmost  minuteness  the  events  of 
every  day.  We  have  the  clearest  possible  evidence 
that  this  Journal  was  not  intended  for  any  other  eyes 
than  those  of  Stella  and  Mrs.  Dingle.  It  is  filled  with 
terms  of  the  most  childish  endearment,  with  execrable 
puns,  with  passages  written  with  his  eyes  shut,  with 
extempore  verses,  and  extempore  proverbs  ;  with  the 
records  of  every  passing  caprice,  of  every  hope,  fear, 
and  petty  annoyance  ;  and  is  evidently  a  complete 
transcript  of  his  mind.  In  that  Journal  we  can  trace 
clearly  the  eminence  to  which  he  rose,  and  also  the 
shadows  that  overcast  his  mind.  One  of  the  principal 
of  these  was  the  gradual  decline  of  his  friendship  with 
Addison.  Addison's  habitual  coldness  had,  at  first, 
completely  yielded  to  the  charms  of  Swift's  conversa- 
tion, and  notwithstanding  the  great  dissimilarity  of 
their  characters,  they  lived  on  the  most  intimate 
terms.     But  Swift  was  a  strong  Tory,  and  Addisoii  was 


18  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

a  strong  Wbig;  and  Addison  was  almost  identified 
with  Steele,  who  was  still  more  violent  in  his  politics, 
and  who,  tliough  he  had  received  favours  from  Swift, 
had  made  a  violent  personal  attack  npon  his  bene- 
factor,* and  had  elicited  an  equally  violent  reply  :  and 
these  things  tended  to  the  dissolution  of  the  friend- 
ship. There  was  never  an  open  breach,  but  their  inter- 
course lost  its  old  cordiality,  and  the  glow  of  affection 
that  had  once  characterised  it  passed  away  never  to 
return.  '  I  went  to  Mr.  Addison's,'  wrote  Swift  in  his 
Journal,  '  and  dined  with  him  at  his  lodgings.  I  had 
not  seen  him  these  three  weeks  ;  we  are  grown  common 
acquaintance,  yet  what  have  I  not  done  for  his  friend 
Steele  !  Mr.  llarlcy  reproached  me  the  last  time  I  saw 
him,  that,  to  please  me,  he  would  be  reconciled  to 
Steele,  and  had  promised  and  appointed  to  see  him, 
and  tliat  Steele  never  came.  Harrison,  whom  IMr.  Ad- 
dison recommended  to  me,  I  have  introduced  to  the 
Secretary  of  State,  who  has  promised  me  to  take  care 
of  him ;  and  I  have  represented  Addison  himself  so  to 
the  jMinistry,  that  they  think  and  talk  in  his  favour, 
though  they  hated  liim  before.  AVell,  lie  is  now  in  my 
debt — there  is  an  end  ;  and  I  never  had  the  least 
obligation  to  him — and  there  is  another  end.' 

Another  source  of  annoyance  to  Swift  was  the  diffi- 
culty with  which  he  obtained  Church  preferment.  He 
knew  that  his  political  position  was  necessarily  exceed- 
ingly transient ;  he  had  no  resources  except  his  living, 
and  he  was  extremely  ambitious.  By  his  influence  at 
least  one  bishopric  and  innumerable  other  places  had 
been  given  away,  and  yet  he  was  unable  to  obtain  for 
liimself  any  preferment  that  would  place  him  above  the 
vicissitudes  of  politics.  The  reason  of  this  was,  that 
t\e  Queen  had  conceived  an  intense  antipathy  to  him. 

'  In  a  pamphlet  called  '  The  Crisis.' 


mS   ALLEGED   SCErilCISM.  19 

Sharpc,  the  Archbishop  of  York,  had  shown  her  liis 
'  T.ile  of  a  Tub,'  and  had  represented  him  as  an  absolute 
freethinker  ;  the  Duchess  of  Somerset,  whose  influence 
at  court  was  very  great,  and  wliom  he  had  bitterly 
and  coarsely  satirised,  employed  herself  with  untiring 
hatred  in  opposing  his  promotion  ;  and  the  impres- 
sion they  made  on  the  mind  of  Anne  was  such  that 
all  the  remonstrances  of  the  Ministers  and  all  the 
entreaties  of  Lady  Masham  were  unable  to  over- 
come it. 

The  charge  of  scepticism  lias  been  frequently  re- 
iterated in  the  present  day,  and  it  must  be  acknow- 
ledged that  it  is  not  wholly  without  plausibility. 
Although  the  object  of  the  '  Tale  of  a  Tub '  was  un- 
doubtedly to  defend  the  Church  of  England,  and  to 
ridicule  its  opponents,  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  in 
the  whole  compass  of  literature  any  production  more 
utterly  unrestrained  by  considerations  of  reverence  or 
decorum.  Nothing  in  Voltaire  is  more  grossly  pro- 
fane than  the  passages  in  Swift  about  the  Koman 
Catholic  doctrine  concerning  the  Sacrament,  and  the 
Calvinistic  doctrine  concerning  inspiration.  And  al- 
though the  '  Tale  of  a  Tub '  is  an  extreme  example, 
the  same  spirit  pervades  many  of  his  other  perform- 
ances. His  wit  was  perfectly  unbridled.  His  unri- 
valled power  of  ludicrous  combination  seldom  failed  to 
get  the  better  of  his  prudence  ;  and  he  found  it  im- 
possible to  resist  a  jest.  It  must  bo  added  that  no 
writer  of  the  time  indulged  more  habitually  in  coarse, 
revolting,  and  indecent  imagery ;  that  he  delighted  in 
a  strain  of  ribald  abuse  peculiarly  unbecoming  in 
a  clergyman ;  that  he  lived  in  an  atmosphere  deeply 
impregnated  with  scepticism ;  and  that  he  frequently 
expressed  a  strong  dislike  for  his  profession.  In  one 
of  his  poems  he  describes  himself  as 


20  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

A  clcrg3Tnan  of  special  noto 
For  shunning  those  of  his  ovrn  coat. 
Which  made  liis  brethren  of  the  gown 
Take  care  betimes  to  run  him  down. 

In  aBothcr  poem  he  says  : 

A  genius  in  a  rerorend  gown 
Will  always  keep  its  owner  down  ; 
'Tis  an  unnatural  conjunction, 
And  spoils  the  credit  of  the  function. 

And  as,  of  old,  mathematicians 
Were  by  the  vulgar  thought  magicians, 
So  academic  dull  ale-drinkers 
Pronounce  all  men  of  wit  free-thinkers. 

At  tlic  same  time,  while  it  must  be  admitted  that 
Swift  was  far  from  being  a  model  clergyman,  it  is,  I 
conceive,  a  complete  misapprehension  to  regard  him  as 
an  infidel.  He  was  admirably  described  by  St.  John 
as  '  a  hypocrite  reversed.'  He  disguised  as  far  as  pos- 
sible his  religion  and  his  affections,  and  took  a  morbid 
pleasure  in  parading  the  harsher  features  of  his  uature. 
If  we  bear  tliis  in  mind,  the  facts  of  his  life  seem  en- 
tirely incompatible  with  the  hypothesis  of  habitual 
concealed  unbelief.  I  do  not  allude  merely  to  tlic 
scrupulousness  with  which  he  discharged  his  functions 
as  a  clergyman,  to  his  increasing  his  duties  by  reading 
prayers  on  Wednesdays  and  Fridays  at  Laracor,  and 
daily  at  St.  Patrick's,  to  liis  administering  tlie  Sacra- 
ment every  week,  and  paying  the  most  unremitting 
attention  to  his  choir,  and  to  all  other  matters  con- 
nected with  his  deanery.  What  I  would  insist  on 
especially  are  the  many  instances  of  concealed  religion 
that  were  discovered  by  his  friends.  Delany  had  been 
weeks  in  his  house  before  he  found  out  that  he  had 
family  prayers  every  morning  ^dth  his  servants.  In 
Loncon  he  rose  early  to  attend  public  worship  at  an 


ins   ALLEGED   SCEPTICISM.  21 

hour  when  he  might  escape  the  notice  of  his  friends 
Though  he  "was  never  a  rich  man  he  is  said  to  hav6 
systematically  allotted  a  third  of  his  income  to  the 
poor ;  and  he  continued  his  unostentatious  charity 
when  his  extreme  misanthropy  and  his  extreme  avarice 
must  have  rendered  it  peculiarly  trying.  He  was 
observed  in  his  later  years,  when  it  was  found  neces- 
sary to  w^atch  him,  piu-suing  his  private  devotions  with 
the  most  undeviating  regularity;  and  some  of  his 
letters,  written  under  circumstances  of  agonising  sorrow, 
contain  religious  expressions  of  the  most  touching 
character. 

That  he  would  have  been  a  sceptic  if  he  had  not 
been  a  clergyman  is  very  probable ;  but  this  is  no  dis- 
paragement to  his  sincerity.  It  is  impossible  for  any 
man  to  throw  himself  into  a  profession  without  the 
habits,  associations,  and  interests  of  that  profession 
giving  a  very  real,  though  perhaps  unconscious,  bias  to 
his  judgment.  Few  persons  can  have  mixed  much  with 
the  world  without  meeting  men  who  are  wholly  inca- 
pable of  the  hypocrisy  of  professing  what  they  do  not 
believe,  but  of  whom  at  the  same  time  it  may  be  safely 
affirmed  that  their  opinions  would  have  been  very  dif- 
ferent if  their  judgment  had  not  been  in  some  degree 
refracted  and  their  natural  tendencies  checked  by  pro- 
fessional interests  and  habits.  Swift  always  flung  him- 
self more  fully  than  he  allowed  into  his  clerical  pro- 
fession ;  and,  as  I  have  already  observed,  the  advocacy 
of  the  High  Church  theory  of  government  was  the  con- 
stant labour  of  his  life.  He  employed  his  own  peculiar 
talent  of  ridicule  continually  against  the  adversaries 
of  his  creed,  and  at  least  brought  the  preponderance 
of  wit  to  the  side  of  orthodoxy ;  and  he  never  forgot 
ecclesiastical  interests  when  he  was  in  power.  He 
obtained  for  the  Irish  clergy  the  coveted  boon  of  the 


22  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

remission  of  the  first  fruits.  The  building  of  fifty  new 
churches  in  London,  under  tlie  ministry  of  Harley, 
was  one  of  his  suggestions.  His  '  Proposal  for  the  Ad- 
vancement of  Religion,'  his  admirable  letter  to  a  young 
clergyman  on  the  qualities  that  are  requisite  in  his 
profession,  the  singularly  beautiful  prayers  which  he 
wrote  for  the  use  of  Stella  when  she  was  dying,  are  all 
worthy  of  a  higli  place  in  religious  literature ;  and 
although,  as  he  said  himself,  his  sermons  were  too  like 
pamphlets,  they  are  full  of  good  sense  and  sound  piety 
admirably  and  decorously  expressed.  Of  the  most  po- 
litical of  them — that '  On  Doing  Good ' — Burke  has  said 
that  it '  contains  perhaps  the  best  motives  to  patriotism 
that  were  ever  delivered  within  so  small  a  compass.' 

It  must  be  added  that  the  coarseness  for  which  Swift 
has  been  so  often  and  so  justly  censured  is  not  the 
coarseness  of  vice.  He  accumulates  images  of  a  kind 
that  most  men  would  have  sedulously  avoided,  but 
there  is  nothing  sensual  in  his  writings ;  he  never 
awakens  an  impure  curiosity,  or  invests  guilt  with  a 
meretricious  charm.  His  writings  in  this  respect  arc 
wholly  different  from  those  of  Byron,  or  Sterne,  or  of 
French  novelists ;  and  it  may  be  safely  affirmed  that 
no  one  has  ever  been  allured  to  vicious  com-ses  by 
reading  them.  He  is  often  very  repulsive  and  very 
indecent,  but  his  faults  in  this  respect  are  rather  those 
of  taste  than  of  morals. 

It  was  not  till  the  year  1713  that  Swift's  friends 
succeeded  in  obtaining  for  him  the  Deanery  of  St. 
Patrick's.  The  appointment  was  regarded  bot]i  by  him 
and  by  them  as  being  far  below  wliat  he  might  have 
expected,  for  its  pecuniary  value  was  not  great,  and 
it  implied  separation  from  all  his  friends,  and  residence 
in  a  country  which  was  then  considered  the  most  im- 
en viable  abode  for  a  man  of  genius.     He  immediately 


chahacter  of  oxfohd.  23 

went  over  to  Ireland,  intending  to  remain  there  for 
some  time,  but  'was  in  a  few  days  recalled  by  his  poli- 
tical friends.  An  open  breach  had  broken  out  between 
the  Ministers,  and  the  G-overnment  seemed  on  the  verge 
of  dissolution.  It  would  be  difficult,  indeed,  to  con- 
ceive two  men  less  capable  of  co-operating  with  cordi- 
ality than  Harley  and  St.  John,  or,  to  give  them  the 
titles  they  had  by  this  time  acquired,  than  Oxford  and 
Bolingbroke. 

Oxford  was  a  man  of  very  moderate  abilities  and  of 
very  unfortunate  manners.  Frigid,  reserved,  and 
formal,  he  was  not  popular  with  any  but  his  most  in- 
timate friends,  and  his  fatal  habit  of  procrastination 
paralysed  the  energies  of  the  Government.  He  con- 
cealed, liowever,  beneath  a  cold  exterior  an  affectionate 
nature  ;  his  private  life  w\as  unusually  pure ;  he  showed 
at  different  periods  of  his  career  an  admirable  forti- 
tude under  adversity  and  a  rare  moderation  in  pro- 
sperity ;  and  he  was  one  of  tlie  most  liberal  and 
enlightened  patrons  of  literature  who  have  ever  di- 
rected the  government  of  England.  Without  any  of 
the  brilliancy  of  an  orator,  or  any  of  the  prescience  of 
a  great  statesman,  he  maintained,  without  much  diffi- 
culty, his  position  at  the  head  of  his  party,  for  he 
possessed  many  of  the  qualities  that  win  confidence  in 
England,  and  especially  among  the  country  gentry  and 
clergy,  who  constitute  the  strength  of  the  Tory  party. 
A  good  private  character,  moderate  views,  industry, 
and  business  habits  weighed  more  with  these  classes 
than  the  splendid  abilities  of  Bolingbroke,  and  a 
certain  affectation  of  mystery,  which  he  often  a?sumed, 
in  some  degree  enhanced  his  reputation  for  wisdom. 

His  colleague,  and  at  last  competitor,  was  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  and  one  of  the  most  untrustworthy 
statesmen  who  have  ever  appeared  in  English  public 


24  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

life.  The  son  of  a  worthless  and  dissipated  character 
who  had  fallen  in  a  duel,  St.  John  had  been  early 
tllro^vn  upon  the  world,  surrounded  by  all  the  asso- 
ciations of  vice,  and  endowed  by  nature  with  gifts 
almost  as  splendid  as  have  ever  been  united  in  a  single 
man.  With  a  person  of  singular  beauty,  and  with  a 
rare  charm  of  manner,  he  possessed  passions  so  fervid 
that  neither  fame  nor  pleasure  could  satiate  them,  and 
a  genius  that  was  equally  adapted  to  sway  a  senate 
and  to  captivate  a  heart.  He  plunged  with  reckless 
impetuosity  into  the  life  of  dissipation  that  opened 
before  him,  and,  in  an  age  of  libertines,  was  conspi- 
cuous as  a  libertine.  Yet  even  then  he  found  time 
to  amass  stores  of  varied  learning  and  to  lay  the 
foundation  of  those  studious  habits  which  were  the 
consolation  and  the  glory  of  his  later  years.^  As  an 
orator  he  was,  by  the  confession  of  all  his  contempo- 
raries, incomparably  the  foremost  of  his  day,  and  his 
writings,  thougli  now  but  little  read,  are  among  the 

'  In  ono  of  the  most  beautiful  of  his  later  Essays  he  gives  us  the 
following  sketch  of  his  habits  : 

'  Not  ouly  a  love  of  study  and  a  desire  of  knowledge  must  have  grown 
up  with  us,  but  such  an  industrious  application  likewise  as  requires  tlie 
whole  vigour  of  the  mind  to  bo  exerted  in  the  pursuit  of  truth  through 
long  trains  of  ideas,  and  all  those  dark  recesses  where  man,  not  God, 
has  hid  it.  This  love  and  this  desire  I  have  felt  all  my  life,  and  I  am 
not  quite  a  stranger  to  this  industry  and  application.  There  has  been 
something  always  ready  to  whisper  in  my  ear  whilst  I  ran  the  course  of 
pleasure  and  of  business, — 

"  Solve  senescentem  mature  sanus  cquum." 

But  my  genius,  unlike  the  demon  of  Socrates,  whispered  so  softly,  that 
very  often  I  heard  him  not  in  the  hurry  of  those  passions  by  which  I  was 
transported.  Some  calmer  moments  there  were  :  in  tliem  I  hiearkened 
to  liim.  Reflection  had  often  its  turn,  and  the  love  of  study  and  the 
desire  of  knowledge  never  quite  abandoned  me.  I  am  not,  therefore, 
entirely  unprepared  for  the  life  I  will  lead,  and  it  is  not  without  reason 
that  I  promise  myself  more  satisfjiction  in  the  latter  part  of  it  than  I 
ever  knew  in  the  former.' — True  Use  of  liciiremcnt  and  Study. 


CnAllACTEIl   OF  BOLINGBHOKE.  25 

most  perfect  models  of  English  prose.  Of  the  reputa- 
tion he  enjoyed  with  the  best  judges  of  his  own  gene- 
ration and  of  that  which  immediately  followed,  it  is 
sufficient  to  say  that  the  elder  Pitt  expressed  a  wish 
for  the  recovery  of  one  speech  of  Bolingbroke  rather 
than  any  lost  work  of  antiquity ;  that  Chesterfield  pro- 
nounced his  written  style  ecjual  to  that  of  Cicero,  and 
declared  that  he  would  rather  his  son  could  attain  it 
than  tliat  he  should  master  all  tlie  learning  of  the 
universities  ;  that  Pope  made  his  pliilosophy  the  basis 
of  the  noblest  philosophical  poem  in  the  language. 
Yet  notwithstanding  his  brilliant  and  varied  talents, 
iiotwithsta,nding  a  great  tenacity  of  purpose,  which  he 
displayed  chiefly  in  the  latter  part  of  his  career,  the 
life  of  Bolingbroke  was  in  a  great  degree  a  failure. 
In  some  respects  he  was  singularly  unfortunate.  The 
sudden  death  of  the  Queen,  and,  at  a  later  period,  the 
death  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  baffled  his  calculations 
in  two  of  the  most  critical  periods  of  his  life.  The 
indecision  and  procrastination  of  Oxford  paralysed  his 
energies  in  one  portion  of  his  career,  and  the  bigoted 
folly  of  the  Pretender  consigned  him  to  inactivity  in 
another.  But  the  chief  cause  of  his  failure  was  his  own 
character.  It  was  the  restless  spirit  of  intrigue  which 
led  him  to  plot  against  his  colleague,  and  to  enter  into 
relations  with  the  Pretender.  It  was  the  notorious 
dissipation  of  his  private  Iif(i  and  the  laxity  of  his 
opinions,  which  deprived  him  of  the  confidence  of  his 
own  party  and  of  that  of  the  great  majority  of  the 
English  people. 

A  rupture  between  two  such  statesmen  was  inevi- 
table. Bolingbroke  occupied  a  position  subordinate 
to  Oxford  in  the  Ministry ;  he  had  been  only  created 
a  Viscount  when  Oxford  was  created  an  Earl.  His 
ambition  had  been  perpetually  trammelled  by  Oxford's 
8 


26  JONATHAN   SWIFT 

procrastination,  and  his  consciousness  of  superior  genius 
irritated  by  Oxford's  haughtiness  ;  and  the  consequence 
of  all  this  was,  that  he  conceived  a  strong  dislike  to 
his  colleague,  which  at  length  deepened  into  an  intense 
hatred.  It  is  no  slight  proof  of  Swift's  force  of  clia- 
racter  that  he  could  control  two  such  men,  or  of  the 
charm  of  his  society  that  he  could  retain  the  affection 
of  both.  Personally,  he  seems  to  have  been  especially 
attached  to  Oxford ;  while  politically  he  was  inclined 
to  agree  with  Bolingbroke,  that  a  more  energetic  line 
of  policy  was  the  only  means  by  which  the  Tory  party 
could  be  saved. 

In  truth,  the  position  of  the  Government  became 
every  week  more  desperate.  The  storm  of  popular 
indignation,  which  had  been  lulled  for  a  time  by  '  Tlio 
Conduct  of  the  Allies,'  broke  out  afresh  with  tenfold 
vio'our  on  the  conclusion  of  the  Peace  of  Utrecht.    The 

o 

long  duration  of  the  war,  the  numerous  Powers  engaged 
in  it,  and  the  many  complications  that  had  arisen  in 
its  progress,  rendered  the  task  of  the  JNIinisters  so 
peculiarly  difficult  that  it  would  have  been  easy  to 
have  attacked  any  peace  framed  under  such  circum- 
stances, however  consummate  the  wisdom  with  which 
its  provisions  had  been  framed.  The  Peace  of  I[trecht 
left  England  incontestably  the  first  Power  of  Europe, 
arrested  an  expenditure  which  had  been  adding  rapidly 
to  the  national  debt,  and  began  one  of  the  most 
prosperous  periods  of  English  history.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  it  was  undoubtedly  negotiated  more  througli 
party  than  through  national  motives ;  it  terminated 
a  long  series  of  splendid  victories,  and  while  it  saved 
France  from  almost  complete  destruction,  it  failed 
to  obtain  the  object  for  which  the  war  had  been 
begiui.  The  cro>vii  of  Spain  remained  upon  the  head 
of  Philip,  and  the  Catalonians,  who  had  risen  to  arms 


THE   PEACE    OF   UTKECnT.  27 

relying  upon  English  support,  were  left  without  any 
protection  for  their  local  liberties.  Any  peace  which 
terminated  a  war  of  such  continual  and  brilliant  suc- 
cess would  have  been  unpopular,  and,  although  the 
Peace  of  Utrecht  was  certainly  advantageous  to  tlie 
country,  some  of  tlie  objections  to  it  were  real  and 
serious,  while  its  free-trade  clauses  raised  a  fierce  storm 
of  ignorant  or  selfish  anger  among  the  mercantile 
classes.  Besides  this,  the  Church  enthusiasm,  which, 
after  the  prosecution  of  Saclieverell,  had  borne  tlie 
Tories  to  power,  had  begun  to  subside.  Tlie  question 
of  dynasty  was  still  uncertain.  The  leading  Tory 
Ministers  were  justly  suspected  of  intriguing  with  the 
Pretender.  They  were  botli,  tliough  on  different  grounds 
and  with  different  classes,  unpopular,  and  they  were 
profoundly  disunited  at  the  very  time  when  their  union 
was  most  necessary. 

Swift,  on  his  arrival  from  Ireland,  induced  them  to 
co-operate  once  more,  and  he  also  wrote  a  defence 
of  the  Peace  of  Utrecht.  Having  accomplished  this, 
he  returned  to  his  deanery,  leaving  his  pamphlet  in 
the  hands  of  the  ]\Iinisters ;  but  they,  being  unable 
to  agree  about  the  light  in  which  some  transactions 
connected  with  the  j^cace  were  to  be  represented, 
withheld  the  publication,  and  shortly  after  quarrelled 
as^ain.  Swift  a^rain  came  to  England,  but  this  time 
his  interposition  proved  unavailing.  He  then  retired 
from  the  political  scene,  and  occupied  himself  in 
jireparing  a  public  Pemonstrance  addressed  to  the 
^Ministers,  blaming  the  want  of  harmony  in  their  coun- 
cils, and  the  indecision  and  procrastination  manifest 
in  their  actions.  Before,  however,  this  Pemonstrance 
was  published,  the  news  arrived  that  Bolingbroke, 
by  the  assistance  of  Lady  ^lasham,  had  effected  the 
disgrace  of  Oxford,  and  had  obtained  the  chief  place 


28  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

in  the  Ministry.  Swift  received  a  letter  from  Lady 
Masham  (who  liad  always  been  his  warm  friend), 
couched  in  the  most  affectionate  terms,  imploring 
]iim  to  continue  to  uphold  the  Ministry  by  his  counsel 
and  by  liis  pen,  and  enclosing  an  order  upon  tho 
Treasury  for  lOOOL  for  the  necessary  expenses  of  in 
duction  into  his  deanery,  which  Oxford  had  promised, 
but,  with  his  usual  procrastination,  had  delayed.  He 
received  at  the  same  time  a  letter  from  Oxford,  re- 
questing his  presence  in  the  country,  where,  as  the 
fallen  statesman  wrote  with  a  touching  pathos,  he  was 
going  '  alone.'  Swift  did  not  hesitate  for  a  moment 
between  the  claims  of  friendship  and  the  allurements 
of  ambition  ;  he  determined  to  accompany  Oxford. 

Events  were  now  succeeding  each  other  with  startling 
rapidity.  Eolingbroke  had  been  only  four  days  Prime 
Minister  wlien  the  Tory  party  learned  with  consterna- 
tion the  death  of  the  Queen,  and  the  consequent  down- 
fall of  their  ascendency.  Walpole,  who  succeeded  to 
the  chief  power,  determined  to  institute  a  series  of 
prosecutions  for  treason  against  his  predecessors.  Bo- 
lingbrokc  fled  from  England,  and  was  condemned  while 
absent.  Ormond  was  impeached.  Oxford  was  thrown 
into  the  Tower,  where  he  remained  for  nearly  two 
years,  but  was  at  last  tried  and  acquitted.  Swift  re- 
tired to  Ireland.  A  few  vague  rumours  prevailed  of 
his  liaving  been  concerned  in  Jacobite  intrigues,  but 
they  never  took  any  consistency,  or  seem  to  have 
deserved  any  attention.  '  Dean  Swift,'  wrote  Arbutli- 
not  at  this  time,  '  keeps  up  his  noble  spirit,  and,  though 
like  a  man  knocked  down,  you  may  behold  him  still 
with  a  stern  countenance,  and  aimino'  a  blow  at  his 
adversaries.'  The  misfortimes  of  liis  friends,  however, 
and  especially  the  imprisonment  of  Oxford,  profoundly 
affected  him,  and  he  even  wrote  to  the  fallen  states- 


TAMESSA.  29 

man,  asking  permission  to  accompany  him  to  prison. 
He  was  also  at  this  time,  more  than  once,  openly 
insulted  by  some  Whigs  in  Dublin,  and  he  had  at 
first  serious  difficulties  with  tlie  minor  clergy  of  his 
deanery. 

But  a  far  more  serious  blow  was  in  store  for  him — 
a  blow  that  not  only  destroyed  liis  peace  for  a  season, 
but  left  an  indelible  stigma  on  his  character.  When  in 
London,  he  had  formed  a  friendship  Avith  INIiss  Van- 
homrigh  (better  kno^vn  by  the  name  of  Vanessa),  a 
young  lady  of  fortune  very  remarkable  for  her  abilities, 
though  not  for  her  personal  beauty.  He  seems  to  have 
been  much  captivated  by  licr  engaging  manners  and  by 
her  brilliant  talents  ;  he  constantly  visited  her  house, 
and  assisted  and  directed  her  in  her  studies.  The  pos- 
sibility of  her  becoming  seriously  attached  to  him  ap- 
pears never  for  a  moment  to  have  flashed  through  his 
mind.  He  had  a  dangerous  fondness  for  acting  the 
part  of  monitor  or  instructor  to  young  ladies  of  intelli- 
gence and  grace.  He  was  himself  extremely  little 
susceptible  to  the  amatory  passion,  and,  being  at  this 
time  between  forty  and  fifty,  he  never  seems  to  liave 
suspected  that  he  could  inspire  it.  He  had  long  been 
accustomed  to  a  purely  intellectual  intercourse  with 
Stella,  and  had  probably  forgotten  how  seldom  such 
intercourse  retains  its  first  cliaracter,  and  how  closely 
admiration  is  allied  to  passion.  It  was  seldom,  indeed, 
that  his  commanding  features — his  eye,  which  Poj^e 
described  as  '  azure  as  the  heavens' — and  the  charm  of 
his  manner  and  of  his  wit,  failed  to  exercise  a  powerful 
influence  on  those  around  him.  That  spell  which  had 
caused  Lady  ]Mashara  to  burst-  into  tears  when  an- 
no\mcing  the  failure  of  liis  ambition;  which  had 
controlled  Oxford  and  Bolingbroke  in  the  midst  of  their 
dissensions  ;  which  had  attached  to  him  so  many  men 


30  JONATHAN    S^'IFT. 

of  genius  by  a  tie  that  neither  his  coarseness  nor  ill- 
temper  nor  misfortunes  could  break,  acted  with  a  fear- 
ful power  on  his  young  and  enthusiastic  pupil.  She 
loved  him  with  all  the  fervour  of  an  impassioned 
nature,  and  an  almost  adoring  reverence  blended  with 
and  enhanced  her  affection.  The  distraction  she  mani- 
fested in  her  studies  betrayed  her  emotions,  and  she 
was  compelled  to  confess  her  love. 

Up  to  this  point  the  conduct  of  Swift  can  hardly  be 
taxed  with  any  graver  fault  than  imprudence,  but  it 
now  became  profoundly  culpable.  It  is  evident  that 
he  had  been  much  attracted  by  Vanessa,  and  the  im- 
pression she  made  is  curiously  sho^^^l  by  the  increasing 
coldness  of  his  Journal  to  Stella  from  the  early  part  of 
1712,  when  his  acquaintance  with  her  rival  began.  On 
the  declaration  of  Vanessa  he  was  filled,  as  he  assures 
us,  with  'shame,  disappointment,  grief,  surprise;'  but 
he  shrank  with  a  fatal  indecision  from  the  plain  and 
lionourable  course  of  decisively  severing  the  connec- 
tion. He  was  unwilling  to  break  loose  from  a  com- 
panionship he  had  found  so  pleasant.  He  was  flattered, 
as  well  as  surprised,  at  the  passion  he  had  inspired. 
He  miscalculated  and  misunderstood  the  force  of  an 
affection  he  had  never  felt,  and  having  always  made  a 
mystery  of  his  connection  with  Stella,  he  was  probably 
imwilling  to  divulge  it.  A  shameful  system  of  tem- 
porising was  thus  begun,  which  lasted  for  no  less  than 
eleven  years.  He  appears  to  have  attempted,  without 
giving  up  the  connection,  to  discourage  the  advances  of 
his  pupil,  and  he  probably  wrote  the  poem  of  '  Cade- 
nus  and  Vanessa '  with  that  end,  though  the  compli- 
ments he  paid  to  her  charms  must  have  done  much 
to  counteract  the  effect  of  his  professions  of  insensibi- 
lity. \Vhen  he  went  to  Ireland  to  Ins  deanery,  Vanessa 
— availing  herself  of  tlic  excuse  tliat  she  had  projoerty 


VANESSA.  31 

ill  that  countiy — insisted,  in  spite  of  Swill's  rcmon- 
Btrance,  in  following  him.  He  cautioned  her  more 
than  once,  and  with  apparent  sincerity,  on  the  impru- 
dence of  the  step  she  was  taking-,  but  still  the  friend- 
ship was  not  broken.  In  the  meantime  the  jealousy 
of  Stella  wae  aroused.  It  appears  to  liave  preyed  upon 
her  health,  and  it  inspired  her  with  a  beautiful  little 
poem,  which  is  still  preserved.  Her  prior  claim  w^as 
indisputable,  and  there  is  very  strong  evidence  that  in 
order  to  satisfy  her  a  marriage  was  privately  celebrated 
in  1716.  Vanessa  continued  writing  passionate,  sup- 
plicating letters  to  Swift,  imploring  him  to  marry  her. 
He  wrote  in  reply,  sometimes  with  a  coldness  of  which 
she  bitterly  complained.  He  sometimes  assumed  an 
air  of  repulsion  in  the  interviews  he  still  occasionally 
had  with  her.  He  endeavoured  to  divert  her  mind  bv 
surrounding  her  with  society,  and  he  openly  counte- 
nanced a  suitor  who  was  seeking  her  hand  ;  but  he 
never  plainly  undeceived  her,  and  the  strange  and  some- 
what unnatural  passion  she  liad  conceived  for  a  man  of 
more  tlian  fifty  continued  unwavering  and  unabated. 
The  death  of  her  sister,  leaving  her  alone  in  the  world, 
contributed  to  intensify  it.  She  retired  to  Celbridge, 
a  secluded  country  place  which  she  possessed,  and  there 
continued  to  nourish  the  flame.  In  letter  after  letter 
of  feverish  impatience  she  endeavoured  to  move  him, 
and  at  length,  irritated  by  his  delay,  she  wTote  to 
Stella.  Stella  gave  the  letter  i-o  the  Dean,  who  re- 
ceived it  with  a  paroxysm  of  passion.  He  rode  to 
Celbridge,  entered  the  room  where  Vanessa  was  sitting, 
and,  darting  at  lier  a  look  of  concentrated  anger,  flung 
down  tlie  letter  at  her  feet  and  departed  without  utter- 
ing a  word.  She  saw  at  once  that  her  fate  was  sealed. 
She  languished  away,  and  in  a  few  weeks  died.  Before 
her  death  she  revoked  the  will  she  had  made  in  favour 


32  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

of  Swift,  and  ordered  the  publication  of  '  Cadenus  and 
Vanessa,'  tlie  poem  in  which  he  had  immortalised  licr 
love.  Swift  fled  to  the  country,  and  remained  for  two 
months  buried  in  the  most  absolute  seclusion. 

I  turn  with  pleasure  from  this  shameful  and  melan- 
choly episode  to  the  general  tenor  of  Swift's  life  in 
Ireland.  The  dissensions  which  had  at  first  existed  in 
his  deanery  were  speedily  composed,  and  he  carried  on 
his  clerical  duties  with  unremitting  energy.  He  lived 
in  a  somewhat  parsimonious  manner,  lodging  with  a 
clergyman,  but  keeping  open  house  twice  a  week  at 
the  deanery.  He  soon  drew  around  him  many  ac- 
quaintances and  a  few  friends,  tlie  principal  of  whom 
were  Delany,  who  was  one  of  the  fellows  of  Trinity 
College,  and  a  schoolmaster  named  Sheridan,  the 
father  of  his  biographer.  Slieridan  was  in  many  ways 
a  remarkable  character.  He  was  the  head  of  a  family 
which  has  continued  for  more  than  a  century  to  be 
prolific  in  genius,  having  produced  a  great  actor  and  a 
great  poetess,  as  well  as  one  of  the  very  greatest  of 
modern  orators.  He  was  in  many  respects  a  perfect 
type  of  the  Irish  character;  recklessly  improvident, 
with  boundless  good-nature  and  the  most  boisterous 
spirits ;  full  of  wit,  of  fire,  and  of  a  certain  kind  of 
genius.  He  ruined  his  prospects  of  promotion  by 
preaching  from  pure  forgetfiilness  from  the  text  '  Suf- 
ficient unto  the  day  is  the  evil  thereof  on  the  anni- 
versary of  the  accession  of  the  House  of  Hanover;  and 
all  through  his  life  he  mismanaged  his  interests  and 
talents.  He  carried  on  a  continual  warfare  with  Swift 
in  the  shape  of  puns,  charades,  satirical  poems,  and 
practical  jokes  ;  and  there  is  something  very  winning 
in  the  boyish  and  careless  delight  with  which  Swift 
threw  himself  into  these  contests.  We  owe  to  them 
many  of  his  best  comic  poems,  and  many  of  the  most 


CONDITION   OF  IRELAND.  33 

amusing  anecdotes  of  his  life.  It  was  not  to  be  ex- 
pected, however,  tliat  he  could  withdraw  his  attention 
from  political  aflfiiirs,  and  he  soon  entered  upon  that 
political  career  which  has  given  him  his  place  in  the 
history  of  Ireland. 

The  position  of  Ireland  was  at  this  time  one  of  the 
most  deplorable  that  can  be  conceived.     The  irrecon- 
cileable  enmity  subsisting  between  the  two  sections  * 
of  tlie  people  had  issued  in  the  ruin  of  both  parties. 
The  Roman  Catholics  had  been  completely  prostrated 
by  the  battle  of  the  Boyne  and  by  the  surrender  of 
Limerick.     Tliey  had  stipulated  indeed  for  religious 
liberty,  but  tlie  treaty  of  Limerick  was  soon  shame- 
lessly violated,  and  it  found  no  avengers.     Sarsfield 
and  his  brave  companions  had  abandoned  a  country 
where  defeat  left   no   opening  for  their  talents,   and 
liad  joined  the  Irish  Brigade  which  liad  been  formed 
in  the  service   of  France.     They    carried  with    them 
something  of  the  religious  fervour  of   the  old  Cove- 
nanters, combined   with   the   military  enthusiasm   so 
characteristic  of  Ireland,  and   they   repaid    tlio    hos- 
pitality of  the  French  by  an  unflinching  and  devoted 
zeal.     In    the   campaign    of   Savoy,   on    the   walls    of 
Cremona,  on  tlie  plains  of  Almanza  and  of  Landen, 
their  courage  shone  conspicuously.     Even  at  Ramilies 
and  at  Blenheim  they  gained  lam-els  amid  tlie  disasters 
of  their  friends,  while  at  Fontenoy  their  charge  shat- 
tered the  victorious  column  of  the  English,  and  is  said 
to  have  wrung  from  the  English  monarch  the  exclama- 
tion, '  Cursed  be  the  laws  that  deprive  me  of  such 
subjects  !'   But  while  the  Irish  Komau  Catholics  abroad 
found  free  scope  for  their  ambition  in  the  service  of 

>  The  two  religions  ranrk  the  lines  of  the  antagonism,  but  do  not 
seem  to  have  Leen  the  cause  of  it.  Tho  war  was  one  of  races,  antl  not  of 
creeds. 


34  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

France,  those  "who  remained  at  home  had  simk  into  a 
condition  of  utter  degradation.  All  Catholic  energy 
and  talent  had  emigrated  to  foi-eign  lands,  and  penal 
laws  cf  atrocious  severity  crushed  the  Catholics  who 
remained.  The  Protestants  were  regarded  as  an 
English  colony ;  any  feeling  of  independence  that 
appeared  among  them  was  sedulously  repressed,  and 
their  interests  were  habitually  sacrificed  to  those  of 
England.  The  Irish  Parliament  was  little  more  than  a 
court  for  registering  Englisli  decrees,  for  it  had  no 
power  of  passmg,  or  even^  discussing,  any  Bill  which 
had  not  been_p'eyiously  approved  and  certified  under 
the  Great  Seal  of  England.  Irisjimen  were_sjstemati- 
callv_excluded  from  the  most  lucrative  places.  The 
Viceroys  were  usually  absent  for  three-fourthsof  their 
terms  of  office.  A  third  of  the  rents  of  the  country 
was  said  to  be  expended  in  England,  and  an  abject 
poverty  prevailed.  But  perhaps  the  most  deplorable 
characteristic  of  the  time  was  the  complete  absence  of 
all  public  feeling,  of  all  hope,  of  all  healthy  interest 
in  political  affairs.  The  Irish  nation  had  as  yet  knoA\Ti 
no  weapon  but  the  sword.  It  was  broken,  and  they 
sank  into  the  apathy  of  despair. 

The  commercial  and  industrial  condition  of  the 
country  was,  if  possible,  more  deplorable  than  its 
political  condition,  and  was  the  result  of  a  series  of 
English  measures  wliich  for  deliberate  and  selfish 
tyranny  could  hardly  be  surpassed.  iJntil  the  feign 
of  Charles  If.  the  Irish  shared  the  commercial  pri- 
vileges of  the  English  ;  but  as  the  island  had  not 
been  really  conquered  till  the  reign  of  Elizabeth,  and 
as  its  people  were  till  then  scarcely  removed  from  bar- 
barism, the  progress  w^as  necessarily  slow.  In  the  early 
Stuart  reigns,  however,  comparative  repose  and  good 
government  were  followed  by  a  sudden  rush  of  pro- 


COMMERCIAL   DISABILITIES.  35 

Bperity.  The  land  was  chiefly  pasture,  for  which  it  was 
admirably  adapted ;  the  export  of  live  cattle  to  Eng- 
land was  carried  on  upon  a  large  scale,  and  it  became 
a  chief  source  of  Irish  wealth.  The  English  land- 
owners, however,  took  the  alarm.  They  complained 
that  Irish  rivalry  in  the  cattle  market  was  reducing 
English  rents  ;  and  accordingly,  by  an  Act  which__was 
first  j)assed  in  1663,  and  was  made  perpetual^  in  1 6J663 
the  importation  of  cattle  into  England  was  forbidden. 

The  effect  of  a  measure  of  this  kind,  levelled  at  tl)e 
principal  article  of  the  commerce  of  the  nation,  was 
necessarily  most   disastrous.     The  profound  modifica- 
tion which  itjntroduced  into  the  course  of  Irish  in- 
dustry is  sufficiently  shown  by  the  estimate  of  Sir  W. 
Petty,  who    declares   tliat  before    this   statiite    three- 
fourths  of  the  trade  of  Ireland  was  with  England,  but 
not  one-fourtiroTiTsince  that  time.     In  the  very  year 
when  this  Bill  was  jpassed  another  measure  was  taken 
110 t_less  fatal  to  the  interests  of  the  countiy.     Injthc 
first  Navigation  Act,  Ireland  was  placed  on  the  same 
terms   as    Enaland :    but  in  the  Act  as  amended  in 
1663  she  was  omitted,  and  was  thus_deprived  of  the 
whole  colonial  trade.     With  the  exception  of  a  very 
few  specified  articles,  no  European  merchandise  could 
be  imported  into  the  British  colonies  except  directly 
from  England,  in  ships  built  in  England,  and  manned 
chiefly  by  English  sailors.     No    articles,  with  a  few 
exceptions,  could   be    brought   from   tlie    colonies   to 
Europe  without  being  first  unladen  in  England.     In 
16.70  this  exclusion  of  IreLmd  was  confirmed,  and  in 
16^6  it  was  rendered  more  stringent,  forjt  was  enacted 
that  no^oo^ds  of  any  sort  could _beJmported  directly 
from  the  colonies  to  "Ireland.     It  will  be  remembered 
that  at  this  time  the  chief  Ikitisli  colonies  were  those 
of  America,  and   that  Ireland,  by    licr    geographical 


30  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

position,  was  naturally  of  all  countries  most  fitted  fur 
the  American  trade. 

As  far,  then,  as  the  colonial  trade  was  concerned, 
Ireland  at  this  time  gained  nothing  Avhatever  by  her 
connection  with  England.  To  other  countries,  how- 
ever, her  ports  were  still  open,  and  in  time  of  peace 
her  foreign  commerce  was  unrestricted,  "^^^en  for- 
bidden to  export  their  cattle_to_Englandj  the  Irish 
turned  their  land  chiefljintosheep-walks,  and  proceeded 
energetically  to  manufacture  the  wool.  Some  faint 
traces  of  this  manufacture  may  be  detected  from  an 
early  period,  and  Lord  Strafford,  when  governing  Ire- 
land, had  mentioned  it  with  a  characteristic  comment. 
Speaking  of  the  Irish  he  says,  '  There  was  little  or  no 
manufactures  amongst  them,  but  some  small  beginnings 
towards  a  clothing  trade,  Avhich  I  had,  and  so  should 
still  discourage  all  I  could,  unless  other wi^  directed 
by  his  Majesty  and  their  Lordships.  ...  It  might  be 
feared  they  would  beat  us  out  of  the  trade  itself  by 
underselling  us,  which  they  were  well  able  to  do.' 
With  the  exception,  however,  of  an  abortive  effort  by 
this  Governor,  the  Irish  wool  manufacture  was  in  no 
degree  impeded,  and  was  indeed  mentioned  with  special 
favour  in  many  Acts  of  Parliament;  and  it  was  in 
a  great  degree  on  the  faitli  of  this  long-continued 
legislative  sanction  tliat  it  was  so  greatly  expanded. 
The  poverty  of  Ireland,  the  low  state  of  the  civilisa- 
tion of  a  large  proportion  of  its  inhabitants,  the  effects 
of  the  civil  Avars  which  had  so  recently  convulsed  it,  and 
the  exclusion  of  its  products  from  the  English  colonies, 
were  doubtless  great  obstacles  to  manufactiuing  en- 
terprise ;  but,  onjthe  other  hand,  Irish  wool  v/as  very 
good,  living  was_cheaper  and  taxes  were  lighter  than 
in  England,  a  spirit  of  real  industriaLenerS)^  began  to 
pervade  the  country,  and  a   considerable   number  of 


COMMERCIAL    DISABILITIES.  37 

English  manufiictiircrs  came  over  to  colonise  it.  There 
appeared  for  a  time  every  probability  that  the  Irish 
would  become  an  industrial  nation,  and  had  manufac- 
tures arisen,  their  whole  social,  political,  and  economical 
condition  would  have  been  changed.  But  English 
jealousy  again  in^terpojcd.  By  an  Act  of  crushiiigjmd 
unprecedented  severity;,  which  was  introduced  in  1698 
and  carried  in  1699,  the  export  of  the^Insh^  woollen 
manufactures,  not  only  to  England,  but  also  to  all 
otlier  countries,  was  absolutely  forbidden. 

The  effects  of  this  Ineasure  Avere  terrible  almost 
beyond  conception.  The  main  industry^^f_tlie  country 
was  at  a  blow  completely  and  irretrievably  annihilated^ 
A  vast  population  was  thrown  into  a  condition  of  utter 
destitution.  Several  thousands  of  manufacturers  left 
the  country,  and  carried  their  skill  and  enterprise  to 
Germany,  France,  and  Spain.  The  western  and  southern 
districts  of  Ireland  are  said  to  have  been  nearly  de- 
populated. Emigration  to  America  began  on  a  large 
scale,  and  the  blow  was  so  severe  that  long  after, 
a  kind  of  chronic  famine  prevailed.  In  1707  the  Irish 
Government  was  unable  to  pay  its  military  establish- 
ments, and  the  national  resources  were  so  small  that  a 
debt  of  less  than  100,000?.  caused  the  gravest  anxiety. 
Fortunately  for  tlie  country,  it  was  found  impossible 
to  guard  the  ports,  and  a  vast  smuggling  export  of 
wool  to  France  was  carried  on,  in  wliich  all  classes 
participated,  and  wliicli  somewhat  alleviated  the  dis- 
tress, but  contributed  powerfully,  with  other  influences, 
to  educate  the  people  in  a  contempt  for  law.  In- 
dustrial enterprise  and  confidence^  were  utterly  jje- 
strojed.  By  a  simple  act  of  authority,  at  a  time  when 
the  Irish  Parliament  was  not  sittinj;,  the  English 
I*arliament  had  suppressed  tlie  chief  form  of  Irish  com- 
merce, solely  and  avowedly  because  it  had  so  succeeded 


38  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

as  to  appear  a  formidable  competitor;  and  there  was 
no  reason  why  a  similar  step  should  not  he  taken 
whenever  any  other  Irish  manufacture  began  to  flourish. 
'I  am  sorry  to  find,'  wrote  an  author  in  1729,  'so 
universal  a  despondency  amongst  us  in  respect  to 
trade.  Men  of  all  degrees  ^ive  up  the  thought  of 
improving  our  commerce,  and  conclude  that  the  restric- 
tions under  which  we  are  laid  are  so  insurmountable 
that  any  attempt  on  that  head  would  be  vain  and 
fruitless.' '  Mol^neux  was  impelled,  chiefly  by  these 
restrictions,  to_  raise  the  banner  of  Irish  legislative  in- 
dependence,  '  Ireland,'  wrote  Swift,  '  is  tlie  only  king- 
dom I  ever  heard  or  read  of,  either  in  ancient  or 
modern  stor}^,  which  was  denied  the  liberty  of  exporting 
their  native  commodities  and  manufactures  wherever 
tliey  pleased,  except  to  countries  at  war  with  their 
own  prince  or  State.  Yet  this  privilege,  by  the  su- 
periority of  mere  power,  is  refused  us  in  the  most 
momentous  parts  of  commerce  ;  besides  an  Act  of 
Navigation,  to  which  we  never  assented,  pinned  down 
upon  us,  and  rigorously  executed.'  It  may  be_,  added, 
that  Daveuant,  who  was  at  this  time  tlie_chicfJEngHsh 
writer  on  economical  matters,  warmly  approved  the 
restriction  on  Irish  wool. 

There  is  one  consideration,  however,  -which  should 
not  be  omitted  in  estimating  the  English  policy  at 
tliis  period.  The  intention  of  Parliament  towards 
Ireland  was  not  purely  malevolent,  and  the  address  to 
William  in  1G98  prayed  him  to  take  measures  '  for  the 
discouraging  the  woollen  and_cncouraging  the  linen 
manufactures  in  Ireland,'  to  wliich,  it  was  added,  '  we 
fihall  always  be  ready  to  give  our  utmost  assistance.' 
The  reply  of  the  King  echoed  the  address.    '  I  shall  do 

'  An  Essay  on  tlic  Trade  of  Ireland  by  the  auUior  of  •  Seasonable 
Remarks'  (1729). 


COMMERCIAL   POLICY    OF   ENGLAND.  39 

all,'  lie  said,  '  that  in  me  lies  to  discourage  the  woollen 
trade  iu  Ireland,  and  encourage  the  linen  manufacture 
and  promote  the  trade  of  England.'  The  professed 
intention  of  the  Legislature  was  to  form  a  kind  of 
compact,  leaving  the  woollen  trade  in  the  possession 
of  England,  and  the  linen  trade  in  that  of  Ireland. 

Upon  this  compact  there  are  several  comments^o  bo 
made.  In  the  first  place  it  is  very  obvious  to  remark 
that  the  fact  of  a  nation  having  created  by  its  industry 
two  forms  of  manufacture  is  no  possible  reason  for  sup- 
pressing one  of  them  ;  and,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  both 
liad  been  encouraged  by  many  previous  Acts.  No  one 
would  contend  that  because  the  cotton  and  iron  ma- 
nufixctures  are  both  flourishing  in  England,  the  de- 
struction of  one  of  them  would  be  other  than  a  fearful 
calamity.  In  truth,  however,  there  was  no  kind_of 
equality  between  the  trade  that^Avas  permitted,__and 
that  which  was  suppressed,  and  no  real  reciprocity  in 
tlie  dealings  of  tlie  two  nations.  The  woollen  trade 
was  tlie  chief  form  of  Irish  industiy.  The  linen  manu- 
facture was  as  yet  so  restricted  tliat  in  1700  its  ex- 
ports only  amounted  to  a  little  more  than  14,000^. 
The  Englisli  utterly  suppressed  the  Irish  woollen 
manufacture  in  order  to  reserve  that  manufacture  to 
themselves  ;  but  tlie  English  and  Scotch  continued  as 
usual  their  manufacture  of  linen.  In  1G99,  when  tlie 
Irish  woollen  trade  was  annihilated,  no  measure  what- 
ever was  taken  for  the  benefit  of  the  Irish  linen 
manufacture;  and  it  was  not  until  1705  that,  at  the 
urgent  petition  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  the  Irish  were 
allowed  to  export  their  white  and  brown  linens,  and 
these  only,  to  the  English  colonies,  but  they  were  not 
permitted  to  bring  any  colonial  produce  in  their  re- 
turn. This  concession,  whicli  placed  one  single  branch 
of  the  linen  trade,  as  far  as  export  to  the  plantations 


40  JONATHAN    STVIFT. 

was  concerned,  in  the  position  which  all  Irish  goods 
occupied  to  the  close  of  the  Protectorate,  was  for  many 
years  the  sole  compensation  which  England  made  for 
the  disastrous  measure  of  1699  ;  and^Hs  a  significant 
fact  that  it  was  intencled_simply  for  tlie  benefit  of_the 
Protestants.  The  linen  trade  had  been  founded,  or  at 
least  greatly  extended,  by  French  Protestant  refugees, 
and  had  taken  root  chiefly  in  the  Protestant  portion  of 
the  island,  and  tlie  preamble  of  the  Bill  for  its  relief, 
after  reciting  the  restrictive  Act  of  1663,  proceeds: 
'  Forasmuch  as  the  Protestant  interest  of  Ireland  ought 
to  be  supported  by  giving  the  utmost  encouragement 
to  The  linen  manufactures  of  that  kingdom,  with  dj_ie 
regard  to  her  Majesty's  good. Protestant  subjects  of  her 
said_kingdomj  be  it  enacted,' &c.  At  a  later  period,  it 
is  true,  England  was  more  liberal  to  this  trade.  From 
1743  bounties  were  given  for  its  encouragement,  whicli, 
tliough  never  amounting  in  a  single  year  to  much  more 
tlian  13,000?.,  and  usually  falling  below  that  amount, 
were  a  sig-n  of  some  solicitude  for  its  interests ;  but^_tiU_ 
near  the  end  of  the  century  England  reserved  for  herself 
a  practical  monopoly  of  one  branch  even  of  this  favoured^ 
trade.  All  dyed  or  chequered  Irish  linens  wereexcluded 
from  the  colonies  till^l777,  and_wcre  subject  toji^dut^ 
amounting  to  prohibition  if  imported~to  England.^ 

No  one,  I  think,  can  folfow  this  subject  without  per- 
ceiving how  much  liglit  it  throws  upon  the  later  his- 
imj  of  Ireland,  and  upon  the  character  of  its  people. 
The  successful  prosecution  of  manufacturing  industry 
depends  not  merely  on  the  accumiTlation  of  capital  and 
on  natural  advantages,  but  also  and  quite  as  much  upon 
the  industrial  habits  of  the  people,  and  these  are  slowly 
formed  by  many  generations  of  uninterrupted  labour. 
In  England  the  principal  forms  of  manufacture  can  be 
'  See  Ilutcliinsou's  '  Commercial  Restraints  of  Ireli'.nd.' 


PRIMATE   BOULTER.  41 

(raced  back  in  an  un]»roken  history  to  the  time  of  the 
Tudors.  In_Ireland  almost  every  leading  industry  was 
checked  or  a.nnihilated  by  law,  and  the  linen,  which 
was  the_only  exception,  has  been  successfully  dc- 
veloj^ed.  The  same  policy  that  was  pursued  with  re- 
ference to  Irish  cattle  and  Irish  wool  was  long  after- 
wards shown  in  other  fields.  Thus,  to  omit  many 
minor  and  partial  restrictions,  Ireland  was  prevented 
by  express  enactments  or  by  prohibitory^'duties  from 
exporting_eitbcr_beeror  malt  to  England,  from  im- 
porting ho£sJ*n3mjinj_countryJ)ut  England,  from  ex- 
porting glass  (of  which  she  had  begun  to  manufacture 
the  coarser  kinds)  to  any  country  whatever,  from  im- 
porting it  from^-anz  country  b u t  England. 

These  last  measures,  however,  belong  to  a  period 
later  than  that  of  Swift.  During  the  time  of  his  Irish 
career,  the  management  of  affairs  in  Ireland  was  cliiefly 
in  the  hands  of  ArchHsliop  Eoulter,  who  occupied  the 
see  of  Armagh  from  1724  to  1738,  and  whose  corre- 
spondence throws  much  curious  and  valuable  liglitupon 
the  condition  of  the  country.  Boulter  was  an  honest 
but  narrow  man,  extremely  cliaritable  to  the  poor,  and 
liberal  to  the  extent  of  warmly  advocating  the  endow- 
ment of  the  Presbyterian  clergy  ;  but  he  was  a  strenuous 
supporter  of  the  penal  code,  and  the  main  object  of 
his  policy  was  to  prevent  the  rise  of  an  Irish  party. 
His  letters  are  chiefly  on  questions  of  money  and  pa- 
tronage, and  it  is  curious  to  observe  how  entirely  all 
religious  motives  appear  to  have  been  absent  from  his 
mind  in  his  innumerable  recommendations  for  Church 
dignities.  Personal  claims,  and  above  all  the  fitness  of 
the  candidate  to  carry  out  the  English  policy,  seem  to 
have  been  in  these  cases  the  only  elements  considered. 
His  uniform  policy  was  to  diydde^the  Irish  Catholics  and 
the  Irish  Protestants,  to  crush  the  former  by  disabling 


42  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

laws,  to  destroy  the  independence  of  tlie  latter  by  con- 
ferring the  rnost  lucrative  and  influential  posts  upon 
Englishmen,  and  thus  to  make  all  Irish  interests 
stiictly  subservient  to  those  of  England.  The  continual 
burden  of  his  letters  is  the  necessity  of  sending  over 
Englishmen,  to  fill  all  important  Irish  posts.  'The 
only  way  to  keep  things  quiet  here,'  he  writes,  '  and 
make  them  easy  to  the  Ministry,  is  by  filling  the  great 
places  with  natives  of  England.'  He  complains  bit- 
terly that  only  nine  of  the  twenty-two  Irish  bishops 
were  Englishmen,  and  urges  the  Ministers  '  gradually 
to  get  as  many  English  on  the  bench  here  as  can 
decently  be  sent  hither.'  On  the  death  of  the  Chan- 
cellor, writing  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  he  speaks  of 
'the  imeasiness  we  are  under  at  the  report  that  a 
native  of  this  place  is  like  to  be  made  Lord  Chancellor.' 
'  I  must  request  of  your  Grace,'  he  adds, '  that  you  would 
use  your  influence  to  have  none  but  Englishmen  put 
into  the  great  places  here  for  the  future.'  When  a 
vacancy  in  the  see  of  Dublin  was  likely  to  occur,  he 
writes  :  'I  am  entirely  of  opinion  that  the  new  Arch- 
>)ishop  ought  to  be  an  Englishman  either  already  on 
the  bench  here  or  in  England.  As  for  a  native  of  this 
country,  I  can  hardly  doubt  that,  whatever  his  beha- 
viour has  been  and  his  promises  may  be,  when  he  is 
once  in  that  station  he  will  put  himself  at  the  head  of 
the  Irish  interest  in  the  Church  at  least,  and  he  will 
naturally  carry  with  him  the  college  and  most  of  the 
clergy  here.' 

It  is  not  surprising  that  a  policy  of  this  kind  should 
have  created  sonie  opposition  among  the  Irish  Pro- 
testants, and  many  traces  of  dissatisfaction  may  be  found 
in  the  letters  of  Primate  Boulter.  The  Protestants, 
however,  were  too  few  and  too  dependent  upon  English 
support,  the  Catholics  were  too  prostrate,  and  public 


MOLYNEUX.  43 

opinion  was   too   feeble  and   too   divided  to  be  very 
formidable,  and  nacasures  of  the  grossest  tyi'anny  were 
carried  without  resistance,  and  almost  without  protest. 
There  had  been,  however,  one  remarkable  exception. 
In  1698,  when  the  measure  for  destroying  the  Irish 
wool  trade  was  under  deliberation,  Molyneux— one  of 
the  members  of  Trinity  College,  an  eminent  man  of 
science,  and  the  '  ingenious  friend  '  mentioned  by  Locke 
in  his  essay — had  published  his  famous  '  Case  of  Ire- 
land,' in  which  he  asserted  the  full  and  sole  competence 
of  the  Iicrsh  Parliament  to  legislate  for  Ireland.     He 
maintained  that  the  Parliament  of  Ireland  had  naturally 
and  anciently  all  the  prerogatives  in  Ireland  which  the 
Engilsh  Parliament  possessed  in  England,  and  that  the 
subservience  to  which  it  had  been  reduced  was  merely 
due  to  actTof  usurpation.     His  arguments  were  chiefly 
historical,  and  were  those  which  were  afterwards  main- 
tained by  Flood  and   Grattan,  and  which  eventually 
triumphed  in  1782.     The  position  and  ability  of  the 
writer,  and  the  extreme  malevolence  with  which,  in 
commercial  matters,  English  authority  was  at  this  time 
employed,  attracted  to  the  Avork  a  large  measure  of 
attention,  and  it  was  written  in  the  most  moderate, 
decorous,  and  respectful  language.     The  Government, 
however,  took  the  alarm;    by  order  of  the   English 
Parliament,  it  was  burnt  by  tlie  common  hangman,  and 
the  spirit  it  aroused  speedily  subsided. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  Irish  politics  and  Irish 
opinion  when  Swift  c;,me  over  to  his  deanery.  _  It  is 
not  difficult  to  understand  how  intolerable  it  must 
liave  been  to  a  man  of  his  character  and  of  his  ante- 
cedents. Accustomed  during  several  years  to  exercise 
a  commanding  influence  upon  the  policy  of  the  empire, 
endowed  beyond  all  living  men  with  that  kind  of 
literary  talent  which  is  most  fitted  to  arouse  and  direct 


44  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

a  great  popular  movement,  and  at  the  same  time 
embittered  by  disappointment  and  defeat,  it  would 
have  been  strange  if  he  had  remained  a  passive  spectator 
of  the  scandalous  and  yet  petty  tyranny  about  him. 
He  had  every  personal  and  party  motive  to  stimulate 
him ;  lie  was  capable  of  a  very  deep  and  genuine 
patriotism  ;  and  a  burning  hatred  of  injustice  and  op- 
pression was  the  form  which  his  virtue  most  naturally 
assumed. 

To  this  hatred,  however,  there  was  one  melancholy 
exception.  He  was  always  an  ecclesiastic  and  a  High 
Churchman,  imbued  with  the  intolerance  of  his  order. 
For  the  Catholics,  as^ich,  he  did_simply  nothing. 
Neither  in  England  when  he  was  guiding  the  jMinistry, 
nor  in  Ireland  when  he  was  leading  the  nation,  did  he 
make  any  effort  to  prevent  the  infraction  of  the  Treaty 
of  Limerick.  He  strenuously  advocated  the  Test  Act, 
which  excluded  the  Dissenters  from  office;  and  one  of 
his  arguments  in  its  favour  was,  that  if  it  were  repealed, 
even  the  Catholics,  by  parity  of  reasoning,  might  claim 
to  be  enfranchised.  Tlie  very  existence  of  the  Catholic 
worship  in  Ireland  he  hoped  would  some  day  be 
destroyedby  ItLW.  His  language  on  this  subject-  is 
explicit  and  emphatic.  '  Tlie  Popish  priests  are  all 
registered,  and  without  permission  (which  I  hoj^je  will 
not  be  granted)  they  can  have  no  successors,  so  that 
the  Protestant  clergy  will  iind  it  perhaps  no  difficult 
matter  to  bring  great  numbers  over  to  the  Church.' 

He  first  turned  his  attention  to  the  state  of  Irisli 
manufactures.  He  published  anonymousl}^,  in  1720", 
an  admirable  pamphlet  on  the  subject,  in  which  he 
urged  the  people  to  meet  the  restrictions  which  had 
been  imposed  on  their  trade  by  abstaining  from  im- 
portation, using  exclusively  Irish  products,  and  burning 
everything  that  came  from  England — '  except  the  coaL' 


THE   DRAriEIl'S   LETTERS.  "^5 

He  described  tlie  recent  English  policy  in  an  ingenious 
passage  under  the  guise  of  the  fable   of  '  Pallas  and 
Arachne.'     'Tlie  goddess  had  heard  of  one  Arachne, 
ii  young  virgin  vcVy  famous  for  spinning  and  weaving. 
They   both  met  upon   a   trial   of  skill;   and  Pallas, 
finding  herself  almost  equalled  in  her  own  art,  stung 
with  rage  and  envy,  knocked  her  rival  down,  turned  her 
into  a  spider,  enjoining  her  to  spin  and  weave  for  ever 
out  of  her  own  bowels,  and  in  a  very  narrow  compass.' 
He  concluded  with  an  earnest  appeal  to  the  landlords 
to  liglitcn   the   rents,  which  were  crushing  so  many 
of  thdr  tenants.     The  pamphlet  attracted  very  great 
attention,  but  was  immediately  prosecuted,  and  Chief 
Justice  Whiteshed  displayed  the  grossest  partisanship 
in  endeavouring  to  intimidate  the  jury  into  giving  a 
verdict  against  H,  but  the  printer  ultimately  remained 
unpunished,  and  a  shower  of  lampoons  assailed  the 

judge. 

The    next   productions    of    Swift   were   his   famous 
'Drapier's  Letters.'      Ireland  had  been  for  some  time 
suffering  from  the  want  of  a  sufficiently  large  copper 
coinage!    Walpole  determined  to   remedy  this  want, 
and  accordingly  gave  a  person  named  Wood  a  patent 
for    coining  ^08,000?.    in   halfpence.     The   halfpence 
were    unquestionably   wanted,    and    there   is   no   real 
ground  for  believing  that  they  were  inferior  to  the  rest 
of  the  copper  coinage  of  the  country ;  but  there  were 
other  reasons  why  the  project  was  both  dangerous  and 
insulting.     Though  the  measure  was  one  profoundly 
affecting  Ir_ish  interests,  it  wasjaken  by  the  Ministers 
withourconsulting  the  Lord  Lieutenant  or  IrisliJPrivy 
Council,  or  the  Parliament,  or  anyone  in  the  country. 
It'Vas  another  aud_ a  ^si:gnal_^ropf  that  Ireland  had 
boen  reduced  to  complete  subservience  to  England^and 
thtLpatent  was  granted  to  a  private  individual  by  the 


46  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

influence  of  the  Duchess  of  Kendal,  the  mistress  of 
the  King-,  and  on  the  stipulation  that  she  should 
receive  a  large  share  of  the  profits. 

It  is  impossible  to  justify  morally  the  course  which 
Swift  took  in  this  matter,  but  it  may  be  greatly 
palliated,  especially  when  we  remember  that  he  lived 
in  the  age  of  Bolingbroke  and  "Walpole,  when  the 
standard  of  political  morality  was  far  lower  than  at 
present.  The  dignity  and  independence  of  the  country 
had  been  grossly  outraged,  and  an  infamous  job  had 
been  perpetrated,  but  it  would  have  been  hopeless  to 
raise  an  opposition  simply  on  constitutional  grounds. 
Tlie  Catholics  were  utterly  crushed.  A  large  pro- 
portion of  the  Protestants  were  far  too  ignorant  to 
care  for  any  mere  constitutional  question.  Public 
opinion  was  faint,  dispirited,  and  divided,  and  tlie 
]iabit  of  servitude  had  passed  into  all  classes.  The 
English  party,  occupying  the  most  important  posts, 
disposing  of  great  emoluments,  and  controlling  the 
courts  of  justice,  were  anxious  to  suppress  every  symp- 
tom of  opposition.  The  fate  of  tlie  treatise  of  Moly- 
neux,  and  of  his  own  tract  on  Irish  ^lanufactures, 
was  a  sufficient  warning,  and  it  was  plain  tliat  tlie 
contemplated  measure  could  only  be  resisted  by  a 
strong  national  enthusiasm.  A  report  that  the  coins 
were  below  their  nominal  value  had  spread  througli 
tlie  country,  and  was  adopted  by  Parliament  and  em- 
bodied in  the  resolutions  of  both  Houses.  Of  tliis 
report  Swift  availed  himself.  AVriting  in  the  character 
of  a  tradesman,  and  adopting  with  consummate  skill 
a  style  of  popular  argument  consonant  to  his  assumed 
character,  he  commenced  a  series  of  letters  in  which  he 
asserted  with  the  utmost  assurance  that  all  who  took  the 
new  coin  would  lose  nearly  elevenpence  in  a  shilling,  or, 
as  he  afterwards  maintained  with  a  great  parade  of  ac- 


THE  dhapier's  lettehs.  47 

curacy,  that  tbirty-six  of  them  would  purchase  a  quart 
of  twopenny  ale.  He  appealed  alternately  to  every  sec- 
tion of  the  community,  pointing  out  how  their  special 
interests  would  be  affected  by  its  introduction,  con- 
cluding with  the  beggars,  who  were  assured  that  the 
coin  selected  for  adulteration  had  been  halfpence,  in 
order  that  they  too  might  be  ruined.  The  most 
terrific  panic  was  soon  created.  The  Ministry  en- 
deavoured to  allay  it  by  a  formal  examination  of  the 
coin  at  the  Mint,  and  by  a  report  issued  by  Sir  I. 
Newton  ;  but  the  time  for  such  a  measure  had  passed. 
Swift  combated  the  report  in  an  exceedingly  in- 
genious letter,  and  the  distrust  of  the  people  was  far 
too  deep  to  be  assuaged. 

By  this  means  the  needful  agitation  was  produced, 
and   it   remained    only   to   turn  it  into  the  national 
channel.     This  was  done  by  the  famous  Fourth  Letter. 
Swift  began  by  deploring  tlie  general  weakness  and 
subserviency  of  the  people.    '  Having,'  he  said,  '  already 
written  three  letters  upon  so  disagreeable  a  subject  as 
Mr.  Wood  and  his  halfpence,  I  conceived  my  task  was 
at  an  end.    But  I  find  that  cordials  must  be  frequently 
applied   to    weak    constitutions,    political   as   well   as 
natural.    'A   people    long    used    to   hardships  lose  by 
degrees  the  very  notions  of  liberty  ;  they  look  upon 
themselves  as  creatures  of  mercy,  and  that  all  imposi- 
tions laid  on  them  by  a  strong  hand  are,  in  the  pliraso 
of  the  report,  legal  and  obligatory.'    He  defined  clearly 
and  boldly  the  limits  of  the  prerogative  of  the  Crown, 
maintaining  that  while  the  Sovereign  had  an  undoubted 
right  to  issue  coin  he  could  not  compel  the  people  to 
receive  it ;  and  he  proceeded  to  assert  the  independence 
of  Ireland,  and  tne  essential  nullity  of  jthose  measures 
which"  had   not   received   the   sanction   of    the__Irish 
Le'^'islature.     He  avowed  his  entire  adherence  J^he 


48  JONATEAN   SWIFT. 

doctrine  of  Moljneux ;  he^  declared  liis  allegianco  to 
the  King,  not  as  King  of  England^  but  as__King  of 
Ireland  ;  and  he  asserted  that  Ireland  was  rightfull}^ 
free  nation,  which  implied  that  it  had  tlie  power  of 
self-legislation ;  for  '  government  without  the  consent 
of  the  governed  is  the  very  definition  qfslnA'ery.'  This 
letter  was  sustained  by  other  pamphlets,  and  by  ballads 
which  were  sung  through  the  streets,  and  it  brought 
the  agitation  to  the  highest  pitch.  All  parties  com- 
bined in  resistance  to  the  obnoxious  patent  and  in  a 
determination  to  support  the  constitutional  doctrine. 
The  Chancellor  Middleton  denounced  the  coin ;  the 
Lords  Justices  refused  to  issue  an  order  for  its  circu- 
lation ;  both  Houses  of  Parliament  passed  addresses 
against  it ;  the  grand  jury  of  Dublin  and  the  coimtry 
gentry  at  most  of  the  quarter  sessions  condemned  it. 
'  I  find,'  wrote  Primage  Boulter, '  by  my  own  nnd  others' 
enquiry,  that  the  people  of  every  religion,  country,  and 
party  here  are  alike  set  against  Wood's  lialfpence,  and 
that  their  agreement  in  this  has  had  a  very  unhappy 
influence  on  the  state  of  this  nation,  by  bringing  on 
intimacies  between  Papists  and  Jacobites  and  the 
Whigs.'  Government  was  exceedingly  alarmed.  Wal- 
pole  had  already  recalled  the  Duke  of  GrafCon,  whom 
he  described  as  '  a  fair-weather  pilot,  that  did  not 
know  how  to  act  wlien  the  first  storm  arose  ; '  but  Lord 
Carteret,  who  succeeded  him  as  Lord  Lieutenant,  was 
equally  unable  to  quell  the  agitation.  A  reward  of 
300Z.  was  offered  in  vain  for  the  discovery  of  the  author 
of  the  Fourth  Letter.  A  prosecution  was  instituted 
against  the  printer  ;  but  the  grand  jiuy  refused  to  find 
the  bill,  and  persisted  in  their  refusal,  notwithstanding 
tlie  violent  and  indecorous  conduct  of  Chief  Justice 
Whiteshed.  The  feeling  of  the  people  grew  daily 
stronger,  and  at  last  Walpole  was  compelled  to  yield 
and  witlulraw  the  Datent. 


ins  STYLE.  49 

Such  were  the  circumstances  of  this  memorable 
contest — a  contest  which  has  been  deservedly  placed  in 
the  foremost  ranks  in  the  annals  of  Ireland.  There  is 
no  more  momentous  epoch  in  the  history  of  a  nation  than 
that  in  which  the  voice  of  the  people  has  first  spoken, 
and  spoken  with  success.  It  marks  the  transition  from 
an  age  of  semi-barbarism  to  an  age  of  civilisation — 
from  the  government  of  force  to  the  government  of 
opinion.  Before  this  time  rebellion  was  the  natm*al 
issue  of  every  patriotic  efifort  in  Ireland.  Since  then 
rebellion  has  been  an  anachronism  and  a  mistake. 
The  age  of  Desmond  and  of  O'Neil  had  passed.  The 
age  of  Grattan  and  of  O'Connell  had  begun. 

Swift  was  admirably  calculated  to  be  the  leader  of 
public  opinion  in  Ireland,  from  his  complete  freedom 
from  tlie  characteristic  defects  of  the  Irish  tempera- 
ment. His  writings  ^xhibit  no  tendency  to  exaggera- 
tion or  bombast ;  no  fallacious  images  or  far-fetched 
analogies ;  no  tumid  phravses  in  which  the  expression 
hangs  loosely  and  inacciurately  around  the  meaning. 
His  style  is  always  clear,  keen,  nervous,  and  exact. 
He  delights  in  the  most  homely  Saxon,  in  the  simplest 
and  most  unadorned  sentences.  His  arguments  are  so 
plain  that  the  weakest  mind  can  grasp  them,  yet  so 
logical  that  it  is  seldom  possible  to  evade  their  force. 
Even  his  fictions  exhibit  everywhere  his  antipathy  to 
vagueness  and  mystery.  As  Emerson  observes,  '  He 
describes  his  characters  as  if  for  the  police-court.'  It 
has  been  often  remarked  that  his  very  wit  is  a  species 
of  argument.  He  starts  from  one  ludicrous  conception, 
such  as  the  existence  of  minute  men,  or  the  suitability 
of  children  for  food,  and  he  proceeds  to  examine  that 
conception  in  every  aspect ;  to  follow  it  out  to  all  its 
consequences  ;  and  to  derive  from  it,  systematically  and 
consistently,  a  train  of  the  most  grotesque  incidents.  He 
4 


50  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

seeks  to  reduce  everything  to  its  most  practical  form, 
and  to  its  simplest  expression,  and  sometimes  affects 
not  even  to  understand  inflated  language.  It  is 
curious  to  observe  an  Irishman,  when  addressing  the 
Irish  people,  laying  hold  of  a  careless  expression  attri- 
buted to  Walpole — that  he  would  pour  the  coin  down 
the  throats  of  the  nation — and  arguing  gravely  that 
the  difficulties  of  such  a  course  would  be  insuperable. 
This  shrewd,  practical,  unimpassioned  tone  was  espe- 
cially needed  in  Ireland.  To  employ  Swift's  own  image, 
it  was  a  medicine  well  suited  to  correct  the  weaknesses 
of  the  national  character. 

After  the  '  Drapier's  Letters,'  Swift  published  several 
minor  pieces  on  Irish  affairs,  but  most  of  them  are 
very  inconsiderable.  The  principal  is  his  '  Short  View 
of  the  State  of  Ireland,'  published  in  1727,  in  which 
he  enumerated  fourteen  causes  of  a  nation's  prosperity, 
and  showed  in  how  many  of  these  Ireland  was  deficient. 
He  also  brought  forward  the  condition  of  the  country 
indirectly,  in  his  amusing  proposal  for  employing 
children  for  food — a  proposal  which  a  French  writer  is 
said  to  have  taken  literally,  and  to  have  gravely  ad- 
duced as  a  proof  of  the  wretched  condition  of  the 
Irish.  His  influence  with  the  people,  after  the  '  Dra- 
pier's Letters,'  was  unbounded.  "Walpole  once  spoke 
of  having  him  arrested,  and  was  asked  whctlier  he  had 
ten  thousand  men  to  spare,  for  they  would  be  needed 
for  the  enterprise.  When  Serjeant  Bettcsworth,  an 
eminent  lawyer  whom  Swift  had  fiercely  satirised, 
threatened  him  with  personal  violence,  the  people  vo- 
luntarily formed  a  guard  for  his  protection.  Wlicn 
Primate  Boulter  accused  him  of  exciting  the  people, 
lie  retorted,  with  scarcely  an  exaggeration,  '  If  I  were 
only  to  lift  my  finger,  you  would  be  torn  to  pieces.' 
We  have  a  curious  proof  of  tlie  extent  of  his  reputation 


nis  ropuLAniTT.  51 

in  a  letter  written  by  Voltaire,  then  a  very  young  man, 
requesting  him  to  procure  subscriptions  in  Ireland  for 
the  'Henriade' — a  request  with  whicli  Swift  complied, 
though  he  had  always  refused  to  publish  his  own  works 
by  subscription. 

There  are  few  things  in  the  Irish  history  pf_the  last 
century  more  touching  than  the  constancy  with_which 
the  people  clung  to  their  old^leader,  even  at  a  time 
wlien  his^faculties_had_wholly  decayed  ;  and,  notwith- 
standing 2iis  creed,  his  profession;  and  his  intolerance, 
tlie  name  of  Swift^was  for  many  generations  the  most 
universally  popidar  in^,Irelaiid»  He  first  taught  the 
Irish  people  to  rely  upon  themselves.  He  led  them 
to  victory  at  a  time  when  long  oppression  and  the 
expatriation  of  all  the  energy  of  the  country  had 
deprived  them  of  every  hope.  He  gave  a  voice  to 
their  mute  sufferings,  and  traced  the  lines  of  their 
future  progress.  The  cause  of  free  trade  and  the  cause 
of  legislative  independence  never  again  passed  out  of 
the  minds  of  Irishmen,  and  tlie  non-importation  ag^rec- 
ment  of  1779,  and  the  legislative  emancipation  of 
1782,  were  the  development  of  liis  policy.  The  street 
ballads  whicli  he  delighted  in  writing,  the  homely, 
transparent  nature  of  all  his  pamphlets,  and  the  pe- 
culiar vein  of  rich  humour  wliich  pervaded  them, 
extended  his  influence  to  tlie  very  lowest  class.  It 
is  related  of  him  that  lie  once  gave  a  guinea  to  a 
maid-servant  to  buy  a  new  gown,  with  the  characteristic 
injunction  that  it  should  be  of  Irish  stuff.  When  ho 
afterwards  reproached  her  with  not  liaving  complied 
with  his  injunction,  she  brought  him  his  own  volumes, 
which  she  had  purchased,  saying  they  were  the  best 
'  Irish  stuff'  she  knew. 

But,  in  spite  of  all  this  popularity,  Ireland  never 
ceased  to  ])e  a  land  of  exile  to  him ;  and  he  more  than 


52  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

once  tried  to  obtain  some  English  preferment  instead 
of  liis  deanery.  With  tliis  object,  on  the  death  of 
Greorge  I.,  he  made  an  assiduous  court  to  Mrs.  Howard, 
the  mistress  of  the  new  Sovereign,  but  soon  found  that 
she  possessed  no  real  power.  The  presence  of  Pope 
and  Bolingbroke,  whom  he  most  truly  loved,  as  well 
as  the  wider  sphere  of  ambition  it  furnished,  drew  his 
affections  to  England,  and  a  number  of  causes  made 
Ireland  peculiarly  painful  to  him.  He  was  engaged 
towards  the  close  of  his  life  in  a  multitude  of  eccle- 
siastical disputes,  into  the  details  of  which  it  is  not 
necessary  to  enter.  He  strenuously  opposed  Bills  for 
commuting  the  tithes  of  flax  and  hemp,  for  preventing 
the  settlement  of  landed  property  on  the  Church  or  on 
public  charities,  for  enlarging  the  power  of  the  bishops 
in  granting  leases,  and  for  relieving  pasture  land  from 
the  payment  of  tithes:  and  the  first  three  Bills  were 
ultimately  rejected.  He  was  also  on  very  bad  terms 
with  the  bishops,  who  were  always  strong  Whigs,  and 
who  represented  the  Church  and  State  policy  to  Avhich 
he  was  most  opposed.  His  judgment  of  them  he  ex- 
pressed with  his  usual  emphasis.  '  Excellent  and  moral 
men  had  been  selected  upon  every  occasion  of  vacancy. 
But  it  unfortunately  has  uniformly  happened  that  as 
tliese  worthy  divines  crossed  Hounslow  Heath  on  their 
road  to  Ireland,  to  take  possession  of  their  bishoprics, 
they  have  been  regularly  robbed  and  miu'dercd  by  the 
liighwaymen  frequenting  that  common,  who  seize  upon 
their  robes  and  patents,  come  over  to  Ireland,  and  are 
consecrated  bishops  in  their  stead.' 

In  1726  he  paid  a  visit  to  England,  after  an  absence 
of  twelve  years.     He  was  introduced  to  Walpole,  who 
received  him  with  marked  civility,  and  whom  he  en- 
deavoured to  interest,  both  directly  and  through  the 
"  -m   of  Peterborouah,   in  Irish    affairs.      He  also 


DEATH   OF   STELLA.  53 

revisited  his  old  friends  Pope  and  Bolingbroke,  but  was 
soon  recalled  by  the  news  that  Stella  was  dying.     He 
retui-ned  in  haste,  scarcely  expecting  to  find  her  alive. 
<  I  have  been  long  weary,'  lie  wrote,  '  of  the  world,  and 
shall,  for  my  small  remainder  of  years,  be  weary  of 
life,  having  for  ever  lost  that  conversation  which  could 
alone  make  it  tolerable.'     Stella,  however,  lingered  till 
1728.     The  close  of  her  life  was  in  keeping  with  the 
rest,  involved  in  circumstances  of  mystery  and  obscu- 
rity ;  and  an  anecdote  is  related  concerning  it  which, 
if  it  be  accepted,  would  leave  a  very  deep  stain  on  the 
memory  of  Swift.     The  younger  Sheridan  states,  on 
the  authority  of  his  father,  tliat  a  few  days  before  her 
death,   Stella,  in   the  presence  of   Sheridan,  adjured 
Swift  to  acknowledge  tlie  marriage  that  had  previously 
taken  place  between  them,  to  save  her  reputation  from 
posthumous  slander,  and  to  grant  her  the  consolation 
of  dying  his  admitted  wife.     He  adds  that  Swift  made 
no  reply,  but  walked  silently  out  of  the  room,  and 
never  saw  her  again  during  tlie  few  days  that  she  lived, 
that  she  was  thrown  by  his  behaviour  into  unspeakable 
agonies  of  disappointment,  inveighed  bitterly  against 
his  cruelty,  and  then  sent  for  a  lawyer  and  bequeathed 
her  property,  in  the  presence  of  Sheridan,  to  chari- 
table purposes.     But  high  as  is  the  authority  for  this 
anecdote,   there    are   serious   reasons   for   questioning 
its  accuracy.     The  book  in  which  it  appeared  was  only 
published  fifty  years  after  the  time,  and  its  author  was 
a  boy  when  his  father  died.    It  appears  from  the  extant 
will  that  it  was  drawn  up,  not  a  '  few  days,'  but  a  full 
month  before  the  death  of  the  testator,  and  at  a  time 
when  she  was  so  far  from  regarding  herself  as  on  the 
point  of  death  that  she  described  herself  as  in  '  toler- 
able  health    of  body,'   left   a   legacy  to   one   of  her 
servants  if  he  should  be  alive  and  in  her  service  at 


54  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

the  time  of  her  death,  and  another  to  the  poor  of  the 
parish  in  which  she  may  happen  to  die.  It  is  certain 
that  the  disposition  of  her  property  was  no  sudden 
resolution,  and  it  is  equally  certain  that  it  was  not 
made  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  Swift,  for  a  letter  by 
him  exists  which  was  written  a  year  earlier,  in  which 
lie  expresses  a  strong  desire  that  she  could  be  induced 
to  make  her  will,  and  states  her  intentions  about  lier 
property  in  tlie  exact  words  which  she  subsequently 
employed.  On  money  matters,  as  we  have  seen,  Swift 
was  very  disinterested,  and  it  is  not  surprising  that  he 
who  had  refused  to  marry  Vanessa  notwithstanding  her 
large  fortune,  should  have  advised  Stella  to  bequeath 
her  property  in  charity.  The  tei'ms  of  agonising  sorrow 
and  intense  affection  in  whicli  he  at  tliis  time  wrote 
about  her,  and  tlie  entire  absence  of  any  known  reason 
why  he  should  not  liave  avowed  the  marriage  had  she 
desired  it,  make  tlie  alleged  act  of  harshness  very  im- 
probable ;  and  it  may  be  added  that  the  will  contains  a 
bequest  to  Swift  of  a  box  of  papers,  and  of  a  bond  for 
thirty  pounds.  The  bulk  of  her  property  she  beqeathed, 
as  Swift  two  years  before  had  intimated,  to  Stecvens 
Hospital,  after  the  death  of  her  mother  and  sister,  to 
revert  to  her  nearest  relative  in  case  of  the  disesta- 
blishment of  the  Protestant  Church  in  Ireland.  It  is 
remarkable  that  Swift  provided  for  the  same  contin- 
gency in  the  case  of  some  tithes  which  he  purchased 
when  at  Laracor,  and  left  to  his  descendants.  Her 
body,  in  accordance  with  the  desire  expressed  in  her 
will,  was  buried  in  St.  Patrick's  Cathedral. 

In  addition  to  the  anecdote  I  have  mentioned,  there 
is  another  related  about  the  last  hours  of  Stella  which 
is  not  very  consistent  with  the  former  one.  JSIrs. 
Whitewa}'",  the  niece  of  Swift,  informed  one  of  his 
relations   tliat   Stella  was   carried  shortly  before   her 


mS   CONNECTION   WITH   STELLA.  55 

death  to  the  deanery,  and  being  very  feeble  was  laid 
upon  a  l>ed,  while  Swift  sat  by  the  side,  holding  her 
hand  and  addressing  her  in  the  most  afifectionate  terms. 
Mrs.  White  way,  out  of  delicacy,  and  being  unwilling 
to  overhear  their  conversation,  withdrew  into  another 
room,  but  she  could  not  help  hearing  two  broken 
sentences.  Swift  said  in  an  audible  tone,  '  Well,  my 
dear,  if  you  wish  it,  it  shall  be  owned;'  to  which  Stella 
answered,  with  a  sigh,  '  It  is  too  late  ; '  and  it  is  as- 
sumed that  these  words  referred  to  the  marriage.  On 
the  whole,  there  is  no  decisive  evidence  that  Stella 
ever  complained  in  her  later  years  of  her  relations  with 
Swift,  or  that  she  suffered  from  any  unhappiness  after 
the  death  of  Miss  Vanhomrigh,  nor  does  Swift  ever 
appear  during  her  lifetime  to  have  been  accused  of 
harshness  to  her.  The  common  belief  that  her  death 
was  caused  or  hastened  by  unrequited  love  appears 
entirely  destitute  of  foundation,  and  is  itself  almost 
absurd.  When  Stella  died  she  was  forty-seven  and 
Swift  was  sixty-one,  and  their  connection  had  been 
unbruken  for  many  years. 

It  is  difficult  or  impossible  to  unravel  the  motives 
which  may  liave  induced  Swift  to  prefer  a  Platonic 
marriage  to  that  of  ordinary  men,  but  some  of  them, 
at  least,  lie  on  the  surface.  He  was  at  first  nervously 
afraid  of  producing  a  family  upon  narrow  means  ;  he 
had  in  all  things  a  strong  bias  towards  singularity; 
and  he  appears  to  have  been  absolutely  insensible  to 
the  passion  of  love,  while  he  was  extremely  susceptible 
to  tlie  charms  of  friendship.  These  reasons  may  have 
at  first  led  to  the  connection,  and  the  force  of  habit 
and  the  failing  health  both  of  himself  and  of  Stella, 
may  have  made  him  unwilling,  when  he  grew  richer,  to 
change  his  habits  of  life.  It  is  probable,  too,  as  Sir 
W.  Scott  1ms  sugg(^sted,  that  some  physical  cause  con- 


56  JONATHAN   SWIFT. 

tributed  to  his  decision.  He  rarely  saw  Stella  except 
in  presence  of  a  third  person,  and  carefully  avoided  all 
occasion  of  scandal;  but  she  did  the  honours  of  his 
table,  though  only  in  the  capacity  of  a  guest,  on  his 
days  of  public  reception.  Her  somewhat  cold  tempe- 
rament and  eminently  decorous  manners  appear  to 
have  fallen  in  well  with  the  arrangement,  and  there  is 
no  evidence  of  any  scandal  having  been  aroused.  There 
is  little  doubt  that  she  was  married  to  Swift  twelve 
years  before  her  death,  but  she  retained  the  name  of 
Johnson  to  the  last,  and  it  is  still  engraven  iipon  her 
tomb.* 

But  whatever  may  have  been  the  relation  subsisting 
between  Stella  and  Swift,  it  is  plain  that  when  she 
died  the  death-knell  of  his  happiness  had  struck.  '  For 
my  part,'  he  wrote  to  one  of  his  friends  just  before  the 
event  took  place,  'as  I  value  life  very  little,  so  the 
poor  casual  remains  of  it  after  sucli  a  loss,  would  be  a 
burden  that  I  most  heartily  beg  God  Almighty  to 
enable  me  to  bear;  and  I  think  tliere  is  not  a  greater 
folly  than  that  of  entering  into  too  strict  and  parti- 
cular a  friendship,  with  the  loss  of  which  a  man  mnst 
be  absolutely  miserable,  but  especially  at  an  age  when 
it  is  too  late  to  engage  in  a  new  friendship.'  That 
morbid  melancholy  to  which  he  had  ever  been  subject 
assumed  a  darker  hue  and  a  more  unremitting  sway  as 
the  shadows  began  to  lengthen  npon  his  path.  It 
had  appeared  very  vividly  in  '  Gulliver's  Travels,* 
which  were  published  as  early  as  1726,  and  which, 
perhaps,  of  all  his  works,  exhibits  mojit  frequently  his 
idiosyncrasies  and  his  sentiments.  We  find  his  old 
hatred    of    mathematics  displayed   in   the  history  of 

*  The  Stella  mystery  has  been  discussed  by  all  the  biographers  of 
Swift,  but  I  must  cspc-cially  acknowledge  my  obligations  to  the  singularly 
interesting  volume  of  Dr.  Wilde  on  '  The  Last  Davs  of  Swift.* 


niS   MELANCnOLY.  57 

Laputa;  his  devotion  to  his  disgraced  friends,  in  the 
attempt   to    cast   ridicule   on  the  evidence  on  whicli 
Attcrbury  was  condemned  ;  his  antipathy  to  Sir  Isaac 
Newton,  whose  habitual  absence  of  mind  is  said  to  have 
suggested  the  flappers  ;   as  well  as  allusions  to  Sir  R. 
Walpole,  to  the  doubtful  policy  of  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
to  the  antipathy  Queen  Anne  had  conceived  against 
him  on  account  of  the  indecorous  manner  in  which  he 
had  defended  the  Churcli,  and  to  a  number  of  otlier 
political  events  of  liis  time.     We  find,  above  all,  his 
deep-seated  contempt  for  mankind  in  his  picture  of  tlie 
Yahoos.     His  view  of   human  nature  perhaps   differs 
little  from  that  professed  by  a  large  religious  school  in 
the  present  day,  but  with  Swift  it  was  no  figure  of 
speech,  no  mere  pulpit  dogma,  but  a  deeply  realised 
fact.     Living  in  one  of  the  most  hollow,  heartless,  and 
sceptical  ages  that  England  liad  ever  known,  embittered 
by  disappointment  and   ill-health,   and    separated  by 
death  or  bv  his  position  from  all  wliora  he  most  deeply 
loved,  he   learnt   to  look  witli   a  contempt   which  is 
often  displayed   in  'Gulliver'    upon    the    contests  in 
which  so  much  of  liis  life  had  been  expended,  and  his 
naturally  stern,  gloomy,  and  foreboding  nature  dark- 
ened into  an  intense  misanthropy.     lie  cast  a  retro- 
spect over  his  life,  and  his  deliberate  opinion  seems  to 
])a\e  been  "that  man  was  hopcdessly  corrupt,  that  the 
evil  p_rcponderatcs  over_the_g<X)d,  and  that  life  itself 
i7a  curse.     He  appears  to  irave  adopted,  as  far  as  this 
world  is  concerned,  the  sentiment  of  his  friend  Boling- 
broke,  that  there  is  so  much  trouble  in  entering  it,  and 
sojnuchlnTeaving  it,  that  it  is  scarcely  wortli  while 
being_here_at  all. 

'Age  had  begun  to  press  heavily  upon  him,  and  age 
he  had  ever  regarded  as  the  greatest  of  human  ills. 
In  lus  picture  of  the  '  Immortals '  he  had  painted  its 


58  JONATHAN    SWIFT. 

fittc'iKhmt  evils  as  they  liiid  i:ever  been  painted  before. 
He  had  ridiculed  tlie  reverence  paid  to  the  old,  as 
resembling  that  whicli  the  vulgar  pay  to  comets,  for 
their  beards  and  their  pretensions  to  foretell  tlie  future. 
lie  had  predicted  that,  like  the  blasted  tree,  he  would 
liimself  die  first  at  the  top.  Those  whom  he  had 
valued  the  most  had  almost  all  preceded  him  to  tlie 
tomb.  Oxford,  Arbuthnot,  Peterborough,  Gay,  Lady 
jNIasham,  and  Kowe,  had  one  by  one  dropped  off.  Of 
all  that  brilliant  company  who  had  surrounded  him  in 
the  days  of  his  power,  Pope  and  Bolingbroke  alone 
remained  ;  and  Pope  was  sinking  under  continued  ill- 
ness, and  Bolingbroke  was  drawing  his  last  breath  in 
the  more  congenial  atmosphere  of  France.  Sheridan 
had  gone  with  broken  fortunes  to  a  school  at  Cavan  ; 
Stella  had  left  no  successor.  His  niece,  Mrs.  AVhite- 
way,  vratched  over  him  with  unwearied  kindness,  but 
she  could  not  supply  the  place  of  those  who  had  gone. 
He  looked  forward  to  death  without  terror  and  with- 
out pain,  but  his  mind  quailed  at  the  prospect  of  the 
dotage  and  the  decrepitude  that  precedes  it.  He  had 
seen  the  greatest  general  and  the  greatest  lawyer  of 
his  day  sink  into  a  second  childhood,  and  he  felt  that 
the  fate  of  Marlborough  and  of  Somers  would  at  last 
be  his  o^vn.  A  large  mirror  once  fell  to  the  ground  in 
the  room  where  he  was  standing.  A  friend  observed 
how  nearly  it  had  killed  him.  '  Would  to  God,'  he 
exclaimed,  'that  it  had!'  His  mind  at  length  gave 
way.  His  flashes  of  wit  became  fewer  and  fewer,  and 
he  gradually  sank  into  a  condition  approaching  imbeci- 
lity, while  at  the  same  time  his  passions  became  wholly 
ungovernable.  He  constantly  broke  into  paroxysms  of 
the  wildest  fury,  into  outbursts  that  were  scarcely  <li-:- 
tinguishable  from  insanity.  Avarice,  the  common  vice 
of  the  old,  came  upon  him  with  a  fearful  power.  He 
had  lost  his  friends,  his  talents,  and  his  health,  nr.d  lie 


HIS  DEATH.  59 

cluDg  with  desperate  tenacity  to  money,  the  only  thing 
that  i-emained.  He  shrank  from  all  hospitality,  from 
all  luxuries,  from  every  expense  that  it  was  possible  to 
avoid.  Yet  even  at  this  time  he  refused  a  considerable 
sum  which  w^as  offered  him  to  renew  a  lease  on  terms 
that  would  be  disadvantageous  to  his  successors. 

At  length  the  evil  day  arrived.  A  tumour,  accom- 
panied by  the  most  excruciating  pain,  arose  over  one 
of  his  eyes.  For  a  month  he  never  gained  a  moment 
of  repose.  For  a  week  he  was  with  difficulty  restrained 
by  force  from  tearing  out  liis  eye.  The  agony  was  too 
great  for  human  endurance.  It  subsided  at  last,  but 
his  mind  had  wholly  ebbed  away.  It  was  not  mad- 
ness ;  it  was  absolute  idiocy  that  ensued.  He  remained 
passive  in  the  hands  of  his  attendants  without  speak- 
ing, or  moving,  or  betraying  the  slightest  emotion. 
Once,  indeed,  when  some  one  spoke  of  the  illumina- 
tions by  which  the  people  were  celebrating  the  anniver- 
sary of  his  birthday,  lie  muttered,  '  It  is  all  folly ;  they 
had  better  leave  it  alone.'  Occasionally  he  endea- 
voured to  rouse  himself  from  liis  torpor,  but  could  not 
liud  words  to  form  a  sentence,  and  with  a  deep  sigh  he 
relapsed  into  his  former  condition.  It  was  not  till 
he  had  continued  in  this  state  for  two  years  that  lie 
exchanged  the  sleep  of  idiocy  for  the  sleep  of  death. 

He  died  in  1747,  and  was  buried  near  the  grave  of 
fStella,  in  his  own  cathedral,  where  the  following  very 
cliaracteristic  epitaph,  wTittea  by  liimself,  marks  his 
grave : 

inC   DF.POSITUM    EST   CORPUS 

JONATHAN    SWIFP,   S.  T.  P. 

HUJCS   ECCLESI.i:    CATHEDRALS 

DECAKI. 

Vm   S^VA   INDIGNATIO 

COK    ILTEniUS    LACEnAEJK   NEQUIT. 

A  Br   VIATOR, 

ET   IMITARE    SI    POTERIS, 

bTUEXUfM    }'i;o   VJRII.I    LIBERTATIS   VINDICATOREM. 


60  JONATHAN   STHFT. 

His  property  he  left  to  build  a  madhouse.  It  would 
seem  as  though  he  were  guided  in  his  determination 
by  an  anticipation  of  his  own  fate.  He  himself  assigned 
another  reason.  He  says  in  his  poem  on  his  own 
death  : 

He  left  the  little  wealth  he  h;id 
To  build  a  house  for  fools  and  Tiiad, 
To  show  by  one  Siiliric  touch 
No  nation  needed  It  so  much. 

The  reputation  of  Swift  has  suffered  from  a  variety 
of  causes.  Politically,  he  was  the  founder  of  an  Irish 
movement  which  English  writers  treat,  for  the  most 
part,  with  ridicule  and  contempt,  and  perhaps  the 
greatest  writer  of  an  English  party  wliich  has  steadily 
been  declining.  He  had  also,  like  so  many  great  men, 
the  misfortune  of  reckoning  among  his  acquaintances 
one  of  those  vain  and  meddling  fools  who  try  to  win  a 
literary  reputation  by  chronicling  the  weaknesses  of 
great  men.  The  '  Recollections  of  Lord  Orrery '  have 
furnished  materials  for  much  posthumous  detraction  ; 
and  the  extreme  coarseness  of  tlio  writings  of  Swift, 
as  well  as  the  many  repulsive  and  unamiable  features  of 
his  cliaracter,  have  given  great  scope  for  the  censures 
of  the  party  writer  or  of  the  popular  moralist. 

In  truth,  the  nature  of  Swift  was  one  of  those  whicl? 
neither  seek  nor  obtain  the  sympathy  of  ordinary  men. 
Through  his  whole  life  his  mind  was  positively  dis- 
eased, and  circumstances  singularly  galling  to  a  great 
genius  and  a  sensitive  nature  combined  to  aggravate 
his  malad3%  Educated  in  poverty  and  neglect,  passing 
then  under  tJie  yoke  of  an  imcongenial  patron  and  of 
an  unsuitable  profession,  condemned  during  his  best 
years  to  offices  that  were  little  more  than  menial,  con- 
signed after  a  brief  period  of  triumph  to  life-long  exile 
in  a  torpid  country,  separated  from  all  his  friends  and 


niS   CHARACTER    AND   GENIUS.  61 

baflled  in  all  his  projects,  he  learned  to   realise  the 
bitterness   of  great  powers  with   no  adequate  sphere 
for  their  display— of  a  great  genius  passed  in  every 
walk  of  worldly  ambition  by  inferior  men.     His  cha- 
racter was  softened  and  improved  by  prosperity,  but 
it  became  acrid  and  virulent  in   adversity.      Hating 
hypocrisy,  he  often  threw  himself  into  tlie   opposite 
extreme,   and   concealed    his   virtues    as    other   men 
their  vices.      Possessing  powers   of  satire  perhaps  as 
terrible  as  have  ever  been  granted  to  a  human  being, 
he   employed    them    sometimes   in    lashing   impostors 
like  Partridge,  or  arrogant  law7ers  like  Bettesworth, 
but  very  often  in  unworthy  personal  or  political  quar- 
rels.    He  flung  himself  unreservedly  into  party  war- 
fare, and  was   often  exceedingly  unscrupulous  about 
the  means  he  employed ;  and  there  is  at  least  one  deep 
stain  on  his  private  character ;  but  he  ^vas  capable  of  a 
very  genuine  patriotism,  of  an  intense  hatred  of  injus- 
tice, of  splendid  acts  of  generosity,  of  a  most  ardent 
and  constant  friendship,  and  it  may  be  truly  said  tliat 
it  was  those  who  knew  him  best  who  admired  him 
most.     He  was  also  absolutely  free  from  those  literary 
jealousies  which  were  so  common  among  his  contempo- 
raries, and  from  the  levity  and  shallowness  of  tliought 
and  character  that  were  so  characteristic  of  liis  time. 

Of  the  intellectual  grandeur  of  his  career  it  is  need- 
less to  speak.  The  chief  sustainer  of  an  English 
Ministry,  the  most  powerful  advocate  of  the  Peace  of 
Utrecht,  the  creator  of  public  opinion  in  Ireland,  lie 
has  graven  his  name  indelibly  in  English  history,  and 
his  WTitings,  of  their  own  kind,  are  unique  in  English 
literature.  It  has  been  the  misfortune  of  Pope  to 
produce  a  number  of  imitators,  who  made  his  versifica- 
tion so  hackneyed  that  they  produced  a  reaction  against 
his  poetry  in  which  it  is  often  most  unduly  underrated. 


62  JONATHAN    S"WIFT. 

Addison,  tliough  always  read  with  pleasure,  has  lost 
much  of  his  old  supremacy.  A  deeper  criticism,  a  more 
nervous  and  stimulating  school  of  political  writers 
liave  made  much  that  he  wrote  appear  feeble  and 
superficial,  and  even  in  his  own  style  it  would  be 
possible  to  produce  passages  in  the  writings  of  Grold- 
smith  and  Lamb  that  might  be  compared  without 
disadvantage  with  the  best  papers  of  tlie  'Spectator.' 
But  the  position  of  Swift  is  unaltered.  '  Gulliver ' 
and  the  '  Tale  of  a  Tub '  remain  isolated  productions, 
unrivalled,  unimitated,  and  inimitable. 


HENRY  FLOOD. 

The  efforts  of  Swift  had  created  a  public  opinion  in 
Ireland,  but  had  not  provided  for  its  continuance.  A 
splendid  example  had  been  given,  pnd  the  principles 
of  liberty  had  been  triumphantly  asserted,  but  there 
was  no  permanent  organ  to  retain  and  transmit  the 
national  sentiment.  The  Irish  Parliament,  which 
seemed  specially  intended  for  this  purpose,  liad  never 
been  regarded  with  favour  by  Swift.  He  had  satirised 
it  bitterly  as  the  Legion  Club — 

Not  a  Lowshot  from  tlie  college, 

Ualf  the  world  from  sense  auJ  knowledge  ; 

and  its  constitution  was  so  defective,  and  its  corruption 
so  gTcat,  that  satire  could  scarcely  exaggerate  its  faults. 
To  lire  this  body  with  a  patriotic  enthusiasm,  to  place 
it  at  the  head  of  the  national  movement,  and  to  make 
it  in  a  measure  the  reflex  of  the  national  will,  was  re- 
served for  tlie  subject  of  the  present  sketch. 

Henry  Flood  was  the  son  of  the  Chief  Justice  of  the 
King's  Bench  in  Ireland.  He  entered  Trinity  College 
as  a  Fellow- Commoner,  but  terminated  his  career,  as 
is  still  sometimes  done,  at  Oxford.  While  at  the  Uni- 
versity he  applied  himself  with  much  energy  to  the 
classics,  and  especially  to  those  studies  which  are  ad- 
vantageous to  an  orator  in  forming  a  pure  and  elevated 
style.  For  tliis  purpose  lie  h^arnt  considerable  portions 
of  Cicero  by  heart.  He  wrote  out  Demosthenes  and 
-Fschines  on  the  Crown,  two  books  of  the  'Paradise 
Lost,'    a   translation   of   two   books   of    Homer,   and 


64  ITENRY   FLOOD. 

the  finest  passages  from  every  play  of  Shakespeare. 
Like  most  persons  who  combine  great  ambition  with 
great  powers  of  expression,  he  devoted  himself  much 
to  poetry ;  liis  principal  production  being  an  '  Ode  to 
Fame,'  which  w^as  much  admired  at  the  time,  and  is 
written  in  the  formal,  florid  style  that  was  then  popular. 
He  was  also  passionately  addicted  to  private  tlieatricals, 
which  were  very  fashionable,  and  whicli  contributed 
not  a  little  to  form  his  style  of  elocution. 

The  portraits  drawn  by  his  contemporaries  are  ex- 
ceedingly attractive.  They  represent  him  as  genial, 
frank,  and  open  ;  endow^ed  with  the  most  brilliant  con- 
versational powers,  and  the  happiest  manner,  '  the  most 
easy  and  best-tempered  man  in  the  world,  as  well  as 
the  most  sensible.'  ^  His  figure  was  exceedingly  grace- 
ful, and  his  countenance,  though  afterwards  soured  and 
distorted  by  disease,  was  originally  of  corresponding 
beauty.  He  was  of  a  remarkably  social  disposition, 
delighting  in  witty  society  and  in  field-sports,  and 
readily  conciliating  the  affection  of  all  classes.  Lord 
Mountmorres,  who  knew  him  chiefly  in  his  later  years, 
and  w^as  inclined  to  judge  him  with  severity,  describes 
him  as  a  preeminently  truthful  man,  and  exceedingly 
averse  to  flattery.  By  his  marriage  he  had  obtained  a 
large  fortune,  and  was  therefore  enabled  to  devote 
himself  exclusively  to  the  service  of  the  countr3% 
When  we  add  to  this,  that  he  was  a  man  of  great 
eloquence,  indomitable  courage,  and  singularly  acute 
judgment,  it  will  be  seen  that  he  possessed  almost 
every  requisite  for  a  great  public  leader. 

He  entered  Parliament  in  1759  as  member  for 
Kilkenny,  being  then  in  his  27th  year,  and  took  his 
seat  on  the  benches  of  tlie  Opposition. 

I  have  said   that  tlio  Irisli  Parliament  was  at  tliis 

Gratt.iu. 


COERUPTION   OF   THE   TARLIAMENT.  G5 

time  subservient  and  corrupt,  and  a  few  facts  will  show 
clearly  the  extent  of  the  evil.  The  Roman  Catholics, 
who  were  the  vast  majority  of  the  population,  were  , 
excluded  from  all  representation,  both  direct  and  in-  \ 
direct.  They  could  not  sit  in  Parliament,  and  they  / 
could  not  vote  for  Protestant  mem})ers.  The  borough 
system,  which  had  been  chiefly  the  work  of  the  Stuarts 
— no  less  than  forty  boroughs  liaving  been  created  by 
James  I.  alone — had  been  developed  to  such  an  extent 
tliat  out  of  the  300  members  who  composed  the  Par- 
liament, 216  were  returned  f(jr  boroughs  or  manors. 
Of  these  borough  members,  200  were  elected  by  100 
individuals,  and  nearly  50  by  10.  According  to  a 
secret  report  drawn  up  by  the  Irisli  Government  for 
Pitt  in  1784,  Lord  Shannon  at  that  time  returned  no 
less  than  IG  members,  the  Ponsonby  family  14,  Lord 
Hillsl)orough  9,  and  the  Duke  of  Leinster  7.  An 
enormous  pension  list,  and  tlie  entire  patronage  of  the 
Government,  were  systematically  and  steadily  employed 
in  corruption,  and  this  was  carried  to  such  an  extent 
tliat  in  1784,  besides  44  placemen,  the  House  of 
Commons  contained  8G  members  wlio  represented  con- 
stituencies which  were  let  out  to  tlie  Government  in 
consideration  of  titles,  offices,  or  pensions.  Peerages 
were  the  especial  reward  of  borough-owners  who  re- 
turned subservient  members,  and  in  this  way  botli 
Houses  were  simultaneously  corrupted  :  53  peers  arc 
said  to  have  nominated  123  members  of  the  Lower 
House.'  Among  the  Irish  nobility,  absenteeism  was 
so  common  that  Swift  assures  us  that  in  his  time  the 
bishops  usually  constituted  nearly  half  of  the  working 
members  of  the  House  of  Lords  ;  ^  and  the  ecclesiastical, 

'  See  Grattin's  Life;  Ma  scy's  'History  of  England;'  Lord  Clon- 
curr}-'s  '  Recollf^ciions.' 

2  Swift's  AVorks  (ScoU's  cd.),  vol.  viji.  p.  365. 


66  HENRY  FLOOD. 

like  all  other  appointments,  were  made  chiefly  through 
political  motives.  At  the  same  time,  the  House  of 
Commons  was  almost  entirely  free  from  popular  control, 
for,  unless  dissolved  by  the  will  of  the  Sovereign,  it 
lasted  for  the  whole  reign.  The  Parliament  of 
George  II.  in  this  manner  continued  for  no  less  than 
thirty-three  years. 

Any  degree  of  independence  that  was  shown  by  a 
body  of  tliis  kind  must  have  been  due  chiefly  to  a 
conflict  between  the  selfish  interests  to  which  it  was 
subject.  Collisions  between  the  landlords  and  the 
ecclesiastical  authorities  on  the  sulyect  of  tithes,  and 
between  tlie  great  Irish  nobles  and  the  Government 
on  tlie  subject  of  patronage,  began  the  independent 
spirit  which  the  Irish  Parliament  ultimately  showed, 
and  it  also,  like  all  legislative  bodies,  had  a  natural 
tendency  to  extend  the  sphere  of  its  authority.  By  a 
law  called  Poyning's  Law,  passed  under  Henry  VII., 
it  had  been  provided  that  the  Irish  Parliament  should 
not  bo  summoned  till  the  Acts  it  was  called  upon  to 
pass  had  been  approved  under  the  Great  Seal  of 
England,  that  Parliament  could  neither  originate 
nor  amend  any  Acts,  and  that  its  sole  power  was  that 
of  rejecting  the  measures  thus  submitted  to  it.  Gra- 
dually, however,  these  restrictions  were  relaxed.  Par- 
liament regained  in  a  gTcat  measure  the  right  of 
originating  Bills,  and  it  claimed,  though  for  a  long 
time  unsuccessfully,  the  right  of  complete  control  over 
the  national  purse.  Its  constitutional  position  before 
1782  was  a  matter  of  constant  dispute  between  its 
members  and  the  English  authorities,  but  the  prevail- 
ing practice  is  thus  described  by  Lord  Mountmorres  : 
Before  a  Parliament  is  summoned,  he  tells  us,  '  it  is 
necessary  that  the  Lord-Lieutenant  and  Council  should 
send  over  an  important  Bill  as  the  reason  for  summoning 


CONSTITUTION    OF   THE   TAIILIAMEKT.  67 

that  assembly.  This  always  created  violent  disputes, 
and  it  was  constantly  rejected,  as  a  money  Bill  which 
originated  in  the  Council  was  contrary  to  a  known 
maxim,  that  the  Commons  hold  the  purse  of  the  nation. 
.  .  .  Preparations  for  laws,  or  heads  of  Bills,  as  they 
are  called,  originated  indifferently  in  either  House. 
After  two  readings  and  a  committal,  they  were  sent  by 
the  Council  to  England,  and  were  submitted  usually  by 
the  English  Privy  Council  to  the  Attorney  and  Solicitor 
General,  and  from  them  they  were  returned  to  the 
Council  of  Ireland,  from  which  they  were  sent  to  the 
Commons  if  they  originated  there  (if  not,  to  the  Lords), 
where  they  went  through  three  stages,  and  :he  Lord- 
Lieutenant  gave  the  royal  assent  in  the  same  form 
which  is  observed  in  Great  Britain.  In  all  these  stages 
in  England  and  Ireland,  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
any  Bill  was  liable  to  be  rejected,  amended,  or  altered; 
bat  tliat  wlien  they  had  passed  the  Great  Seal  of 
England,  no  alteration  could  be  made  by  the  Irish 
Parliament.'  *  Tlie  ultimate  form  therefore  which 
every  Irish  measure  assumed  was  determined  by  the 
authorities  in  England,  who  had  the  power  either  of 
altering  or  rejecting  the  Bills  of  the  Irish  Parliament, 
and  this  latter  body,  thougli  it  miglit  reject  the  Bill 
which  was  returned  to  it  from  England  in  an  amended 
form,  had  no  power  to  alter  it. 

The  speaking  in  the  Parliament,  as  might  be  ex- 
pected, v>-as  in  general  very  bad.  Parliamentar}^  elo- 
quence usually  implies  a  certain  amount  of  patriotic 
enthusiasm,  and  can  scarcely  exist  when  the  over- 
whelming majority  are  governed  by  corrupt  motives. 
An  eminent  lawyer  named  Malone,'^  who  obtained  the 
position  of  Chancellor    of  tlie  Exchequer,  is  said  to 

'  Lord  Mountmorrrs's  '  History  of  the  Irish  Parliaraent,'  vol.  i.  p,  59. 
*  Father  of  the  •Bcll-kuf)\rn  editor  of  Shakespeare. 


68  HENRY   FLOOD. 

liave  been  a  great  master  of  judicial  eloquence ;  and 
Grattan,  who,  in  Lis  pamphlet  in  answer  to  Lord  Clare, 
has  devoted  a  fine  paragraph  to  him,  relates  that  Lord 
George  Sackville  was  accustomed  to  mention  him  with 
Chatham  and  jNIansfield  as  one  of  the  three  greatest 
men  he  had  ever  known,  but  with  this  exception  it 
appears  that  before  Flood,  Ireland  had  produced  no 
orator  of  eminence. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  tlie  Parliament  when 
Flood  entered  upon  his  career,  and  made  his  maiden 
speech  against  Primate  Stone,  who  had  succeeded  to 
much  of  the  political  influence  which  Boulter  had  pre- 
viously possessed,  and  was  the  recognised  head  of  the 
English  party.  The  eloquence  and  position  of  the 
young  member  soon  made  liim  the  leader  of  the  party 
which  desired  to  abridge  tlie  corrupt  influence  of 
Government,  and  to  establish  tlie  independence  of 
Parliament. 

His  eloquence,  as  far  as  we  can  judge  from  tlie 
description  of  contemi3oraries  and  from  the  fragments 
that  remain,  was  not  quite  equal  to  that  of  some  later 
Irish  orators.  He  was  too  sententious  and  too  laboured. 
He  had,  at  least  in  his  later  years,  but  little  fire  and 
imagination  ;  his  taste  was  by  no  means  pure;  and  his 
lanouaire,  thouo-h  full  of  force  and  meanin^',  was  often 
tinged  with  pedantry.  He  appears,  however,  to  have 
been  one  of  the  very  greatest  of  Parliamentary 
reasoners.  To  those  who  are  acquainted  wath  the 
speeches  of  Grattan,  and  know  the  wonderful  force 
with  which  that  orator  condensed  an  argument  into  an 
epigram,  and  disencumbered  it  of  all  superfluous 
matter,  it  will  be  sufficient  to  say  that  Flood  was  in- 
variably considered  the  more  convincing  reasoner  of 
the  two.  He  was  a  great  master  of  grave  sarcasm,  of 
invective,  of  weighty,  judicial  statement,  and  of  reply; 


LUCAS.  69 

and  he  brought  to  every  question  a  wide  range  of  con- 
stitutional knowledge,  and  a  keen  and  prescient,  though 
somewhat  sceptical,  judgment.  He  is  also  said  to  have 
surpassed  all  his  contemporaries  in  the  irritating  and 
embarrassing  tactics  of  an  Opposition  leader.  There 
was  an  air  of  solemn  dignity  in  his  manner  which 
added  much  to  the  eflfect  of  his  gTeater  sjiceches,  but 
did  not  suit  trivial  subjects.  Grattan  said  of  him, 
tliat  '  on  a  small  subject  lie  was  miserable.  Put  a 
distaff  into  his  hand,  and,  like  Hercules,  he  made  sad 
work  of  it ;  but'  give  him  a  thunderbolt,  and  he  had 
the  arm  of  a  Jove.'  The  only  speaker  who  was  at  all 
able  to  cope  with  him  in  the  earlier  part  of  his  career 
was  Hely  Hutchinson,  the  Provost  of  Trinity  College,' 
wlio  was  superior  to  him  in  light  sarcasm  and  raillery, 
but  inferior  in  all  beside. 

His  indefatigable  exertions  soon  produced  their 
fruit.  Public  opinion  began  to  show  itself  outside  the 
walls  of  Parliament,  and  a  powerful  Opposition  was 
organised  within.  The  chief  objects  he  proposed  to 
himself  were  the  shortening  of  the  duration  of  Parlia- 
ment, the  reduction  of  the  pension  list,  the  creation  of 
a  constitutional  militia,  and  the  establishment  of  the 
principles  of  Molyneux.  In  pursuing  the  first  of  these 
objects,  he  found  a  powerful  auxiliary  in  Charles  Lucas, 
a  very  remarkable  man  who  then  occupied  a  prominent 
position  in  Irish  politics.  Lucas  had  been  originally  a 
Dublin  apothecary.  He  was  a  man  of  little  education 
and  no  property,  but  of  a  strong,  shrewd,  coarse  in- 
tellect, great  courage,  and  indefatigable  perseverance. 
In  1741  he  had  detected  and  exposed  some  encroach- 
ments that  had  been  made  upon  the  charters  of  Irish 

'  Author  of  a  most  admirablo  work  on  the  '  Commercial  Disabilitips 
of  Ireland,'  from  which  I  have  derived  much  assistaLPo  in  that  portion 
of  my  suLjoct. 


70  HENRY  FLOOD. 

corporate  towns,  and  from  that  time  lie  devoted  himself 
continually  to  politics.  He  asserted  the  independence 
of  Ireland  so  unequivocally,  and  he  denoimced  the  cor- 
ruption of  Parliament  in  so  pointed  and  personal  a 
manner,  that  the  grand  jury  of  Dublin  at  last  ordered 
his  addresses  to  be  burnt,  and  the  Parliament,  in  1749, 
proclaimed  him  an  enemy  to  the  country,  and  issued  a 
warrant  for  his  apprehension-  He  fled  to  England, 
where  he  became  a  physician  and  practised  with  some 
success,  and  he  wrote  in  exile  an  appeal  to  the  people 
of  both  countries,  as  well  as  a  treatise  on  Bath  waters. 
A  noli  prosequi  at  last  enabled  liim  to  return,  and  his 
popularity  was  so  great  that  he  was  elected  member 
for  Dublin.  He  had  lost  the  use  of  his  limbs,  and  his 
speeches — which  were  chiefly  remarkable  for  tlieir 
violent  vituperation — were  all  delivered  sitting.  Ho 
denoimced  the  pensioners  and  the  Government  witli 
imsparing  bitterness,  but  there  was  no  one  against 
whom  his  sarcasm  was  more  envenomed  than  against 
his  own  colleague.  Tliat  colleague  was  the  Eecorder 
of  Dublin,  the  fatlier  of  Henry  Grattan.  Lucas  brought 
forward  a  Septennial  Bill,  but  it  never  became  law. 
He  assisted  Flood  in  Parliament  by  his  speeches,  but 
exercised  a  far  greater  influence  outside  Parliament  by 
articles  in  the  '  Freeman's  Journal,'  which  he  had  ori- 
ginated, and  which  was  the  foimdation  of  the  Irish 
Liberal  j^ress.     He  died  in  1771.^ 

For  about  ten  years  the  patriotic  party  in  the  Irish 
Parliament  carried  on  a  desultory  warfare  on  the  ques- 
tions I  have  enumerated.  Their  influence  was  shown  in 
the  creation  of  a  strong  and  growing  public  feeling 
outside  Parliament,  and  of  a  small  but  able  Opposition 
within  its  walls  ;  but  though  they  often  embarrassed 

'  His  pamplilcts  and  acKlrcsscs  have  been  collected :  tliej'  form  one 
thick  and  tedious  vol u mo. 


LORD   TOWNSHEND's    ADMINISTRATION.  Vl 

a  Minister  and  sometimes  carried  a  division,  their 
measures  were  always  ultimately  rejected  either  by 
Parliament  or  the  Vrivj  Council.  In  1767,  however,  a 
great  and  unforeseen  change  took  place  in  their  pros- 
pects, in  consequence  of  the  appointment  of  Lord 
Townshend  as  Lord-Lieutenant,  and  of  the  new  line  of 
policy  which  he  resolved  to  pursue. 

Lord  Townshend  was  brother  of  the  more  famous 
Charles   Townshend,    whose   brilliant    but    disastrous 
career  closed  almost  immediately  after  this  appoint- 
ment.   A  soldier  of  some  distinction,  with  considerable 
talents  and  popular  and  convivial  manners,  he  entered 
upon  his  administration  under  very  promising  circum- 
stances.     His   first    speech   favoured   the   project   of 
making  the  judges  irremovable ;  and  a  Bill  to.  that 
effect  was  accordingly  carried  through  Parliament,  but 
it  was  returned  from  England  so  altered  that  it  was 
rejected  ;  and  this  important  reform,  which  had  been 
obtained  in  England  at  the  Revolution,  was  not  ex- 
tended to  Ireland  till   1782.     But  the  unpopulai-ity 
which  resulted  from  this  failure  was  more  than  com- 
pensated in  the  following  year  by  the  enthusiasm  pro- 
duced by  the  concession  of  one  of  the  strongest  wishes 
of  the  Irish  people.     The  limitation  of  the  duration  of 
Parliament  was  justly  regarded  as  the  first  condition 
of  all  constitutional  progress,  and  it  was  a  question 
upon  which  a  violent  agitation  had  been  aroused.     The 
members  of  Parliament,  as  was  very  natural,  disliked 
the  change,  but  they  did  not  venture    to  resist  the 
popular  outcry ;  they  felt  secure  that  if  they  passed 
the  Bill  it  would  be  aftcr^vards  rejected  in  England; 
and    they    were    not     averse    to    obtaining    in     this 
manner    some    popularity    with    their    constituents. 
This  little  comedy  was  played  three  times,  but. in  17G8 
the  English  Cabinet  resolved  to  yield.     The  violent 


72  HENRY    FLOOD. 

commotion  that  liad  arisen  in  Ireland,  the  unpopularity 
produced  by  the  defeat  of  the  Judg-es  Bill,  anger  at  the 
proceedings  of  the  Irish  aristocracy,  and  perhaps  a 
desire  of  strengthening  the  hands  of  Lord  Townshend 
for  the  policy  lie  was  about  to  pursue,  were  their  pro- 
bable motives.  The  Bill  as  it  passed  through  Parlia- 
ment was  a  septennial  one,  but  was  changed  in  England 
into  an  octennial  one,  and  in  that  form  became  law. 
The  policy  of  Flood  and  Lucas  had  so  far  triumphed, 
and  the  Parliament  became  in  some  real  sense  an 
organ  of  the  popular  will. 

The  Lord-Lieutenant,  however,  who  was  the  object  of 
an  enthusiastic  ovation  in  1768,  was  destined  to  be- 
come one  of  the  most  unpopular  who  have  ever  ruled  in 
Ireland,  and  to  give  an  unprecedented  impulse  to  the 
national  spirit.  It  had  been  the  custom  of  his  prede- 
cessors to  reside  very  little  in  Ireland,  and  the  manage- 
ment of  Parliament  was  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  four  or 
five  gi-eat  borough-owners,  who  undertook  to  carry  on 
the  business  of  the  Grovernment  in  consideration  of 
obtaining  a  monopoly  of  its  patronage.  This  system 
Lord  Townshend  resolved  to  destroy.  If  his  object  had 
been  simply  to  diminish  overgrown  aristocratic  power, 
to  check  corruption,  or  to  make  Parliament  in  some 
degree  popular,  it  would  have  been  laudable,  but  the 
real  end  of  liis  policy  appears  to  have  been  of  a  dif- 
ferent nature.  The  great  Irish  families  were  gTasping, 
rapacious,  and  corrupt ;  but  they  also  constituted  in 
some  measure  an  independent  Irish  party,  and  Lord 
Townshend  wished  in  consequence  to  break  their 
power,  and  to  make  Parliament  directly  and  exclu- 
sively subservient  to  Government  influence.  With 
this  object,  the  whole  patronage  of  the  Grovernment 
was  employed,  and  corruption  carried  to  an  extent  to 
which   even  the  Irish  Parliament  was  unaccustomed. 


LOUD   TOWXSnEND's   ADMINISTRATION.  73 

The  constitutional  dependency  of  the  Parliament  was 
strenuously  asserted,  while  the  great  aristocratic 
families  were  thrown  into  alliance  with  the  party  of 
Flood  and  of  the  patriots. 

The  struggle  began  upon  the  question  of  a  money 
Bill.  A  large  proportion  of  the  Irish  members  had 
always,  as  I  have  said,  aimed  at  obtaining  for  their 
House  a  complete  control  of  the  national  purse,  and 
the  practice  of  originating  or  altering  money  Bills  in 
England  had  always  been  resented.  It  was  contended 
by  some,  on  very  doubtful  grounds,  that  this  practice 
was  illegal ;  by  others  that,  even  if  strictly  legal,  it 
was  incompatible  with  all  real  national  independence, 
and  tliat  Parliament  should  resist  it  by  the  exercise  of 
its  undoubted  right  of  rejecting  any  money  Bill  which 
did  not  originate  with  itself.  A  money  Bill  originated 
by  the  Privy  Council  in  1769  was  rejected  by  the  first 
octennial  Parliament  on  the  ground  that  it  did  '  not 
take  its  rise  in  that  House,'  while  at  the  same  time 
the  House,  to  prove  its  loyalty,  voted  large  supplies  to 
the  Crown.  The  Lord-Lieutenant  delivered,  in  the  form 
of  a  speech,  an  angry  protest,  which  he  caused  to  bo 
inserted  in  the  Journals  of  the  House  of  Lords ;  and 
he  prorogued  the  Parliament,  though  pressing  business 
was  on  hand.  For  fourteen  months  it  was  not  again 
summoned.  In  the  meantime  places  were  lavishly 
multiplied.  It  was  afterwards  a  confession  or  a  boast 
of  Lord  Clare  that  not  less  than  half  a  million  of 
money  was  spent  in  obtaining  a  majority.  With  such 
a  constitution  as  that  of  the  Irish  Parliament,  such 
efforts  were  always  in  some  degree  successful.  When 
the  House  met  in  1771,  the  customary  congratulatory 
addresses  to  the  Lord-Lieutenant  were  duly  carried, 
though  not  without  great  diflBculty  and  after  a  powerful 
opposition  from  Flood  in  the  Commons  and  from 
5 


74  irENRY   FLOOD. 

Charlemont  in  the  Lords  ;  but  when  another  altered 
money  Bill  was  introduced,  it  was  rejected  on  the 
motion  of  Flood  witliout  a  division.  The  Commis- 
sioners of  Eevenue,  who  Avere  not  allowed  to  sit  in  tlie 
Ensflish  House  of  Commons,  had  seats  in  that  of  Ire- 
land,  and  Lord  Townshend,  with  a  view  to  increasing 
his  Parliamentary  influence,  resolved  to  increase  their 
number  from  seven  to  twelve.  Flood  denounced  the 
proposed  measure,  and  on  his  motion  the  Parliament 
passed  a  resolution  asserting  the  sufficiency  of  seven. 
In  accordance  with  another  resolution,  the  opinion  of 
the  House  was  formally  laid  before  the  Lord-Lieu- 
tenant, who  carried  out  his  intention  in  defiance  of 
Parliament.  Every  nerve  was  strained  on  both  sides. 
A  direct  vote  of  censure  against  those  who  had  advised 
this  increase  was  then  brought  forward,  and  was  car- 
ried by  the  casting  vote  of  the  Speaker.  Lord  Towns- 
hend succumbed  to  the  storm.  He  was  speedily 
recalled,  but  before  he  left  Ireland,  he  succeeded  in 
obtaining  a  vote  of  thanks  from  Parliament.* 

During  the  course  of  this  contest  a  series  of  political 
papers  appeared  in  Dublin,  under  the  title  of  '  Barata- 
riana,'  which  produced  an  extraordinary  sensation,  and 
are  not  even  now  quite  forgotten.  They  consisted  of  a 
history  of  Barataria,  being  a  sketch  of  Lord  Towns- 
liend's  administration,  with  fictitious  names  ;  of  a  series 

*  A  curious  and  favourable  light  is  thrown  upon  the  administration 
of  Lord  Townshend  by  some  letters  of  Lord  Camden,  published  in 
Campbell's  '  Lives  of  the  Chancellors,'  vol.  vi.  pp.  386-3S9.  It  appears 
that  the  Chancellor  and  the  chiefs  of  the  three  law  courts  in  Ireland  had 
been  always  English  ;  that  the  Irish  acquired  the  King's  Bench,  and 
that  in  the  Viceroyalty  preceding  that  of  Lord  Townshend  an  Irish 
Chief  Baron  was  for  the  first  time  made.  Flood  had  made  a  rehomcnt 
attack  upon  the  plan  of  sending  over  judges  from  England,  and  Lord 
Townshend  was  extremely  anxious  to  make  an  Irishman  Lord  Chan- 
cellor, but  the  English  Cabinet  (guided,  as  it  w^ould  appear,  chiefly  by 
the  advice  of  Lord  Camden  and  Lord  Northington)  refused  to  consent. 


CHANGE    OF    MINISTRY.  75 

of  letters  modelled  after  Junius  ;  and  of  tl)ree  or  four 
satirical  poems.  The  history  and  the  poems  were  by 
Sir  Hercules  Langrishe,  the  dedication  and  the  letters 
signed  '  Posthumus '  and  '  Pertinax '  by  Grattan,  and 
those  signed  '  Syndercombe '  by  Flood.  Flood's  letters 
are  powerful  and  well-reasoned,  but,  like  his  speeches, 
too  laboured  in  style,  and  they  certainly  give  no  coun- 
tenance to  the  notion  started  at  one  time  that  he  was 
the  author  of  the  Letters  of  Junius. 

Flood  liad  now  attained  to  a  position  that  had  as  yet 
been  unparalleled  in  Ireland.  He  had  shown  that  pure 
patriotism  and  great  abilities  could  find  scope  in  the 
Irish  Parliament.  He  had  proved  himself  beyond  all 
comparison  the  greatest  orator  that  his  country  had  as 
yet  produced,  and  also  a  consummate  master  of  Parlia- 
mentary tactics.  In  the  midst  of  a  corruption,  venality, 
and  su])serviency  wliich  could  scarcely  be  exaggerated, 
lie  had  created  a  party  before  which  Ministers  had 
begun  to  quail — a  party  whicli  had  wrung  from  Eng- 
land a  concession  of  inestimable  value,  which  had  in- 
oculated tlie  people  with  tlic  spirit  of  liberty  and  of 
self-reliance,  and  which  promised  to  expand  with  the 
development  of  public  opinion  till  it  had  broken  every 
fetter  and  Iiad  recovered  every  riglit.  Xo  rival  had  as 
yet  risen  to  detract  from  liis  fame,  and  no  suspicion 
rested  upon  his  conduct.  Tlie  tide  now  began  to  turn. 
We  have  henceforth  to  describe  the  rapid  decadence 
of  his  power.  \Ve  have  to  follow  him  descending  from 
his  proud  position,  eclipsed  by  a  more  splendid  genius, 
soiu-ed  b}^  disappointment,  and  clouded  by  suspicion, 
and  sinking,  after  one  brilliant  flash  of  departing  glorv, 
into  a  position  of  comparative  insignificance. 

Tlie  Administration  of  Lord  Harcourt  succeeded 
that  of  Lord  Townshend.  It  was  conducted  on  more 
liberal  principles,  and  Flood  at  first  supported  it  as  an 


76  HENRY  FLOOD. 

independent  member,  and  at  length  consented  to  ac- 
cept the  office  of  Vice-Treasurer.  Of  all  the  steps  of 
liis  career  tliis  has  been  the  most  censured,  and  it  is 
only  with  great  diffidence  that  I  venture  to  discuss 
his  motives.  The  materials  in  print  for  forming  an 
opinion  on  this  portion  of  Irish  history  are  so  extremely 
scanty,  and  they  consist  in  so  large  a  degree  of  parti- 
san speeches,  letters,  and  biograpliies,  that  an  historian 
must  always  feel  painfully  conscious  that  the  true 
springs  and  motives  of  the  proceedings  he  describes 
may  lie  beyond  his  knowledge,  and  that  an  accurate 
account  of  the  secret  negotiations  of  the  Viceregal 
G-overnment  with  the  leading  statesmen  might  give  a 
wholly  different  complexion  to  his  narrative.  The 
reasons,  however,  which  Flood  alleged  for  joining  tlic 
Government  are  on  record,  and,  besides  contemporary 
letters  and  conversations  that  were  preserved,  we  possess 
his  own  very  elaborate  vindication  in  a  speech  which  he 
delivered  in  1783  in  reply  to  the  invective  of  Grattan. 
These  reasons  seem  to  me  amply  sufficient  to  exculpate 
liim  from  the  cliarge  of  corruption.  Flood  had  never 
been  a  factious  or  systematic  opponent  of  Govern- 
ments, and  his  persistent  hostility  to  that  of  Lord 
Townshend  only  dated  from  the  prorogation.  He 
desired,  it  is  true,  to  make  the  Irish  Legislature  as 
independent  as  that  of  England,  and  it  was  an  intel- 
ligible policy  to  stand  apart  from  every  Government 
which  refused  to  make  the  concession  ;  but  such  a  policy 
then  appeared  absolutely  suicidal.  The  constitution 
of  Parliament  and  the  character  of  its  members  made 
it  seem  utterly  impossible  tliat  a  measure  of  indepen- 
dence could  be  carried  in  the  teeth  of  the  Government, 
and  if  it  were  carried  there  was  not  the  faintest  pro- 
bability of  such  a  movement  outside  the  walls  as  would 
compel  the  Englisli  Parliament  to  yield  to  it.     It  was 


BEASONS    FOR   TAKIN'G    OFFICE.  77 

not  possible  for  Flood  or  for  any  man  to  predict  the 
wonderful  impulse  that  was  given  to  the  national  cause 
by  the  American  war  and  by  the  arms  of  the  volunteers. 
His  success  during  Lord  Townshend's  Administration 
was  chiefly  due  to  the  accidental  alliance  of  some 
of  the  most  selfish  members  of  the  aristocracy  with  his 
party,  and  even  then  two  votes  of  tlianks  to  the  Lord- 
Lieutenant  were  carried  in  spite  of  his  opposition. 
When  the  irritation  which  Lord  Townshend  had  caused 
had  been  allayed  by  the  appointment  of  a  new  Viceroy, 
the  party  of  Flood  began  at  once  to  dwindle,  and  it 
appeared  evident  that  under  the  existing  constitution 
of  Parliament  that  party  could  not  reasonably  hope  to 
do  more  than  modify  the  course  of  events.  Under 
these  circumstances  Flood  contended  that  the  true 
policy  of  patriots  was  to  act  with  the  Government,  and 
endeavour  to  make  its  measures  diverge  in  the  direction 
of  public  utility.  A  patriot  in  office  would  be  obliged 
to  waive  the  discussion  of  some  measures  which  he 
desired,  but  he  could  do  more  for  the  popular  cause 
tlian  if  he  were  leading  a  hopeless  minority.  Flood 
liimself  was  so  indisputably  the  first  man  in  Parliament 
that  he  reasonably  held  that  he  could  greatly  influence 
the  Government,  and  Lord  Harcourt  was  an  honourable 
and  liberal  man,  and  he  came  to  supersede  the  Viceroy 
whom  Flood  had  most  bitterly  opposed.  At  such  a 
time,  and  estimating  the  strengtli  of  parties  when 
Ireland  was  in  its  normal  condition.  Flood  concluded 
that  the  discussion  of  the  independence  of  Parliament 
miglit  be  advantageously  postponed,  if  its  postpone- 
ment were  purchased  by  some  minor  concessions  on 
the  part  of  the  Government.  By  becoming  Vice- 
Treasurer  he  opened  to  Irishmen  an  office  from  which 
they  had  been  hitherto  excluded,  he  silenced  the  cry 
of  faction  which  had  been  raised  a^^rainst  him,  and  he 


78  HENRY   FLOOD. 

proved  the  compatibility  of  national  principles  with 
perfect  attachment  to  the  Crown.  Ministers  had  shown 
themselves  willing  to  make  considerable  concessions  in 
the  direction  of  economy  in  order  to  obtain  his  support. 
Some  prospect  had  been  held  out  of  a  relaxation  of  the 
commercial  restrictions.  They  had  distinctly  autho- 
rised him  to  propose  an  absentee-tax,  to  which  he,  like 
many  Irish  Liberals,  attached  a  great  importance  ;  and 
he  was  not  without  hopes  of  being  able  still  further  to 
modify  their  policy.  These  reasons,  enforced  by  the 
persuasive  powers  of  Sir  John  Blacquiere,  determined 
him,  as  he  said,  to  accept  office,  and  there  appears  to 
me  to  be  no  valid  reason  for  questioning  his  account. 
It  may  be  added  that  the  faults  of  his  character  never 
were  those  of  corruption.  A  certain  avarice  of  fame, 
a  nervous  solicitude  about  opinion,  made  him  often 
jealous  of  competitors,  fretful  and  uncertain  as  a  col- 
league, anxious  to  identify  himself  with  all  great 
measures,  and  prone  to  exaggerate  his  sJiare  in  their 
success ;  but  in  no  otlicr  part  of  his  life  was  he  open  to 
a  suspicion  of  being  governed  by  love  of  money ;  nor 
Vxas  he  in  this  respect  much  tempted,  for  he  possessed 
a  large  private  fortune,  and  lind  no  children. 

Lord  Cliarlcmont  protested  strongly  against  this 
resolution  of  Flood,  and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  it 
f.rrined  the  fatal  turning-point  of  his  life.  For  nearly 
seveu  years  he  remained  in  office,  and  during  that 
period  lie  was  obliged  to  keep  resolute  silence  on  those 
great  constitutional  questions  which  in  former  years  he 
had  ceaselessly  expounded.  His  character  was  no  longer 
above  suspicion,  and  tlie  confidence  of  the  people — the 
chief  element  of  his  power — had  passed  away.  The 
popular  mind  always  detects  readily  a  change  of  opi* 
nions  or  of  polic}^,  but  seldom  cares  to  analyse  the 
motives  that  may  liave  produced  it.     The  absentee- tax 


DEFENCELESS  STATE    OF  IRELAND.  79 

was  strongly  opposed  by  the  groat  Whig  noblemen  in 
England,  and  the  Government  at  length  abandoned  it. 
The  commercial  relaxations  that  he  expected  were 
pertinaciously  withheld.  A  two  years'  embargo  was 
imposed  upon  Ireland,  in  consequence  of  the  American 
war  ;  and  in  this  unpopular  measure  he  was  compelled 
to  acquiesce.  Like  very  many  politicians  of  his  time, 
lie  seems  to  have  regarded  the  subjugation  of  America 
as  of  vital  importance  to  the  empire.  'Destruction,* 
he  once  predicted  in  a  characteristic  sentence,  '  will 
come  upon  the  British  empire  like  the  coldness  of 
death.  It  will  creep  upon  it  from  the  extreme  parts.' 
Four  thousand  Irish  troops  were  sent  to  fight  against 
tlie  Americans.  The  inducement  was,  that  the  pay 
would  be  saved  to  Ireland  ;  the  objections  were,  that 
it  left  Ireland  without  the  stijnilated  number  of  troops, 
nnd  in  a  measure  defenceles.s,  and  that  this  extra- 
ordinary exertion  seemed  to  imply  an  extraordinary 
amount  of  zeal  against  a  cause  which  most  Liberals 
regarded  as  that  of  justice  and  of  freedom.  Flood 
defended  the  measure,  and  designated  the  troops  as 
'armed  negotiators.'  It  was  to  this  unfortunate  ex- 
pression that  Grattan  alluded  when  he  described  him, 
in  his  famous  invective,  as  standing  '  with  a  metaphor 
in  his  mouth  and  a  bribe  in  his  pocket,  a  champion 
against  the  rights  of  America — the  only  hoj^  of  Ire- 
land, and  the  only  refuge  of  tlie  liberties  of  mankind.' 

But  results  such  as  no  one  had  predicted  soon  sprang 
from  this  measure.  The  Mayor  of  Belfast  called  upon 
the  Government  to  place  a  garrison  in  that  town  to 
pro'tect  it  against  the  French,  and  w^as  informed  that 
half  a  troop  of  dismounted  cavalry  and  half  a  troop  of 
invalids  were  all  that  could  be  spared  to  defend  the 
commercial  capital  of  Ireland. 

Then  arose  one  of  those  movements  of  enthusiasm 


»0  HENRY   FLOOD. 

that  occur  two  or  three  times  in  the  history  of  a  nation. 
The  cry  to  arms  passed  through  the  land,  and  was 
speedily  responded  to  by  all  parties  and  by  all  creeds. 
Beginning  among  the  Protestants  of  the  north,  the 
movement  soon  spread,  though  in  a  less  degree,  to 
other  parts  of  the  island,  and  the  war  of  religions  and  of 
castes,  that  had  so  long  divided  the  people,  vanished 
as  a  dream.  The  inertness  produced  by  centuries  of 
oppression  was  speedily  forgotten,  and  replaced  by  tlie 
consciousness  of  recovered  strength.  From  Howth  to 
Connemara,  from  the  Giant's  Causeway  to  Cape  Clear, 
the  spirit  of  enthusiasm  had  passed,  and  the  creation  of  • 
an  army  had  begun.  The  military  authorities  who  could 
not  defend  the  country  could  not  refuse  to  arm  those  who 
had  arisen  to  supply  their  place.  Though  the  popula- 
tion of  Ireland  was  little  more  than  half  of  what  it  is  at 
present,  G0,000  men  soon  assembled,  disciplined  and 
appointed  as  a  regular  army,  iired  by  the  strongest 
enthusiasm,  and  moving  as  a  single  man.  Tliey  ros<;; 
to  defend  their  country  alike  from  the  invasion  of  a 
foreign  army  and  from  the  encroachments  of  an  alien 
Legislature.  Faithful  to  the  connection  between  the 
two  islands,  they  determined  that  that  connection 
should  rest  upon  mutual  respect  and  upon  essential 
equality.  In  the  words  of  one  of  their  own  resolutions, 
'  they  knew  their  duty  to  their  Sovereign,  and  they 
were  loyal ;  they  knew  their  duty  to  themselves,  and 
they  were  resolved  to  be  free.'  They  were  guided  by 
the  chastened  wisdom,  the  unquestioned  patriotism, 
the  ready  tact  of  Charlemont.  Conspicuous  among 
their  colonels  was  Flood,  not  uninjured  in  his  repu- 
tation by  his  ministerial  career,  yet  still  reverent  from 
the  memory  of  his  past  achievements  and  the  splendour 
of  his  yet  unfading  intellect ;  and  there,  too,  was  he 
before  whose  genius  all  other  Irishmen  had  begim  to 


THE    YOLUNTEERS.  81 

pale — the  putriot  of  unsullied  purity— tlic  statesman 
who  could  fire  a  nation  by  his  enthusiasm  and  restrain 
it  by  his  wisdom— the  orator  whose  burning  sentences 
became  the  very  proverbs  of  freedom— the  gifted,  the 
high-minded  Henry  Grattan. 

It  was  a  moment  of  supreme  danger  for  the  empire. 
The  energies  of  England  were  taxed  to  the  utmost  by 
the  war,  and  there  could  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that 
the  Volunteers,  supported  by  the  people,  could  have 
wrested  Ireland  from  her  grasp.  A  nation  unhabituated 
to  freedom,  and  maddened  by  centuries  of  oppression, 
had  suddenly  acquired  this  overwhelming  power.  Could 
its  leaders  restrain  it  within  the  limits  of  moderation? 
Or,  if  it  was  in  their  power,  was  it  in  their  will  ? 

The  voice  of  the  Volunteers  soon  spoke,  in  no 
equivocal  terms,  on  Irish  politics.  They  resolved  that 
'  Citizens,  by  learning  the  use  of  arms,  forfeit  none  of 
their  civil  rights  ;'  and  they  formed  themselves  into  a 
regular  Convention,  with  delegates  and  organisation, 
for  the  purpose  of  discussing  the  condition  of  the 
country.  Their  denunciations  of  the  commercial  and 
legislative  restrictions  grew  louder  and  louder;  and 
two  cannons  were  shown  labelled  with  the  inscription 
'  Free  Trade  or  this  I ' 

In  Parliament  Grattan  and  Kussey  Burgh  made 
themselves  the  interpreters  of  the  prevailing  feeling. 
The  latter,  in  a  speech  which  was  long  remembered  as 
a  masterpiece  of  eloquence,  described  the  condition  of 
the  country,  and  called  upon  the  ^Ministers  to  avert 
war  by  timely  and  ample  concessions.  '  Talk  not  to 
me,'  he  exclaimed,  'of  peace;  it  is  not  peace,  but 
smothered  war.  England  has  sown  her  laws  in  dragons' 
teeth,  and  they  have  sprung  up  in  armed  men.'  The 
restrictions  on  trade  were  made  the  special  objects  of 
attack.     I   have   described   in   the   last   chapter   the 


82  HENRY    VLCOD. 

manner  in  which — with  tlie  exception  of  the  linen 
trade — almost  every  branch  of  Irish  commerce  and 
manufactm-e  was  crippled  or  ruined  by  law,  and  very 
few  measures  of  relief  had  been  carried  during  the 
first  three  quarters  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Some 
additional  encouragement  had  indeed  been  given  to 
Irish  linen.  Several  temporary  Acts  were  passod  per- 
mitting Irish  cattle,  salted  provisions,  and  tallow  to 
enter  Enjrland,  and  in  1765  Ireland  w^as  allowed  to 
receive  iron  and  timber  direct  from  the  colonies,  but 
the  more  important  disabilities  remained  unchanged. 
In  1775,  however,  a  strong  movement  for  free  trade 
arose  in  Ireland,  which  fully  triumphed  under  the  in- 
fluence of  tlie  Volunteers  in  1779.  In  the  first  of 
these  years  Irish  vessels  were  admitted  to  the  fisheries 
of  Newfoundland  and  Greenland.  In  1778  several 
small  relaxations  w^ere  made  in  tJie  prohibitory  law's 
whicli  excluded  Ireland  from  the  colonial  trade.  In 
the  beginning  of  1779  an  attempt  w^as  made  to  allay 
the  Irish  cry  for  the  repeal  of  all  commercial  dis- 
abilities by  granting  new  bounties  to  linen  and  to 
hemp,  and  by  permitting  the  cultivation  of  tobacco  in 
Ireland.  The  time,  however,  for  such  compromise  had 
passed,  and  on  both  sides  of  the  Channel  public  feeling 
ran  dangerously  high.  The  English  manufacturers, 
and  especially  the  towns  of  Manchester  and  Glasgow, 
were  bitterly  opposed  to  any  measure  of  free  trade,  and 
their  opposition  hampered  the  very  liberal  tendencies 
of  Lord  North.  The  Irish  were  in  arms,  and  they 
demanded  nothing  less  than  to  be  placed  on  the  same 
footing  with  the  English.  Numerous  meetings  were 
held,  and  resolutions  adopted,  pledging  the  people 
neither  to  import  or  consume  any  articles  of  Englisli 
manufacture  till  the  commercial  restrictions  were  re- 
moved ;  and  v»hen  Parliament  met  in  October  1779, 


REMOYED   FROM   THE   MINISTRY.  83 

Burgh  moved,  as  an  amendment  to  the  address  from 
the  throne,  a  petition  fur  '  an  extension  of  trade/ 
Flood,  who  was  still  a  Minist/cr,  rose  and  suggested 
that  the  expression  '  free  trade '  should  be  employed, 
and  spoke  in  favour  of  the  amendment,  which  was 
carried.  The  House  went  in  a  body  to  present  their 
petition  to  the  Lord-Lieutenant,  and  the  Volunteers 
lined  the  road  and  presented  arms  to  them  as  they 
passed.  The  due  emphasis  was  thus  supplied  to  their 
request,  and  Lord  North  soon  after  brought  forward  in 
England  a  series  of  measures  which  removed  the  chief 
grievanties  that  were  complained  of.  The  Acts  pro- 
hibiting the  Irish  from  exporting  their  woollen  and 
glass  manufactures  were  repealed,  and  the  colonial 
trade  was  tliro\vn  open  to  Ireland. 

The  events  that  have  been  described  rendered  the 
position  of  Flood  as  Minister  still  more  irksome  than 
it  liad  been,  and  at  last  he  took  the  step  which  it  was 
plainly  his  duty  to  have  tak(m  before — threw  up  Iiis 
office  and  rejoined  his  old  friends.  The  Ministers 
marked  their  displeasure  at  his  conduct  by  dismissing 
iiim  from  the  Council ;  and  he  never  regained  his 
former  position  among  the  Liberals  in  Parliament. 
He  found  that  his  long  services  liad  been  forgotten 
during  his  long  silence,  that  the  genius  of  Grattan  had 
obtained  a  complete  ascendency  in  Parliament,  and 
that  the  questions  lie  had  for  so  many  years  discussed 
were  taken  out  of  his  hands.  He  felt  the  change 
very  acutely,  and  it  exercised  a  perceptible  influence 
upon  his  temper.  In  1779  Yelverton  brought  forward 
a  Bill  for  the  repeal  of  Poyning's  Law  ;  and  Flood, 
while  supporting  the  measure,  complained  bitterly  that 
'  after  a  service  of  twenty  years  in  the  study  of  this 
particular  question'  he  had  been  superseded.  He  added: 
'The  honourable  gentleman  is  erecting  a  temple  of 


84  HENRT   FLOOD. 

liberty.  I  hope  that  at  least  I  shall  be  allowed  a 
niche  in  the  fane.'  Yelverton  retorted  by  reminding 
tliem  that  by  the  civil  law  '  if  a  man  shonld  separate 
from  his  wife,  desert,  and  abandon  her  for  seven  yeai-s, 
another  might  then  take  her  and  give  her  his  protec- 
tion.' 

I  pass  over  the  events  that  immediately  followed 
the  discussions  of  the  Volunteers,  and  the  ultimate 
triumph  of  Irisli  independence,  as  belonging  more 
especially  to  the  life  of  Grattan.  Tlie  next  prominent 
transaction  in  which  Flood  appears  w^as  the  fatal  con- 
troversy on  tlie  subject  of  Simple  Kcpeal.  How  far  in 
tliis  matter  he  was  actuated  by  personal  motives,  and 
how  far  by  pure  patriotism,  it  is  impossible  to  deter- 
mine. This  much  may  be  said  in  his  favour—  that  he 
supported  every  step  of  his  policy  by  specious  if  not 
by  conclusive  arguments,  and  that  he  carried  witli  him 
a  very  large  section  of  the  intellect  of  the  country. 
The  broad  question  on  which  he  differed  from  Grattan 
was  the  advisability  of  continuing  the  Volunteer  Con- 
vention. Grattan  washed  Ireland  to  subside  into  its 
normal  condition  as  soon  as  the  independence  of  the 
Parliament  had  been  declared ;  he  felt  the  danger  and 
the  irregularity  of  having  the  representatives  of  an 
armed  force  organised  like  an  independent  Parliament, 
and  overawing  all  other  authority  in  the  land.  He 
considered  that  Parliamentary  reforms  should  emanate 
from  Parliament  alone,  and  should  be  the  result  of  no 
coercion,  except  that  of  public  opinion.  Flood,  on  the 
other  hand,  perceived  that  Ireland  was  in  a  j^osition, 
with  reference  to  England,  such  as  she  might  never 
occupy  again ;  he  believed  tliat  by  continuing  the 
Convention  a  little  longer,  guarantees  of  Irish  in- 
dependence Diight  be  obtained  which  it  would  be 
impossible  afterwards  to  overthrow;  and  that  Parlia- 


SIMPLE   REPEAL.  85 

ment  in'gLt  be  so  reformed  as  to  be  made  completely 
subject  to  public  opinion,  and  therefore  completel}^ 
above  the  danger  of  miniaterial  intrigue.  He  fore- 
saw what  Grattan  at  that  time  does  not  appear  to 
have  foreseen,  that  the  English  Ministers  would  never 
cordially  accept  the  new  position  of  Ireland ;  that 
they  would  avail  themselves  of  every  extraordinary 
circumstance,  of  every  means  of  corruption  in  their 
power,  to  strangle  the  independence  of  Parliament ; 
and  tliat  the  borough  system  gave  them  a  fatal  facility 
for  the  accomplishment  of  their  purpose. 

The  Simple  Repeal  controversy  may  be  thus  shortly 
stated :  English  statesmen  maintained,  and  Irish  Libe- 
rals, from  IMolyneux  to  Grattan,  denied,  that  the  effect 
of  Poyning's  Law  was  to  make  the  Irish  Parliament 
entirely  subservient  to  English  control.^  Tlie  Parlia- 
ment of  England  fixed  the  sense  by  a  declaratory  Act, 
asserting  the  dependence  of  that  of  Ireland,  and  it  was 
on  these  two  enactments  that  its  authority  in  Ireland 
rested.  In  1782  tlie  Irish  Parliament  asserted  its  own. 
independence,  and  the  English  Parliament  repealed 
its  declaratory  Act.  The  question  at  issue  was  whetlier 
this  was  sufficient,  or  whether  an  express  renunciation 
should  be  exacted  from  England. 

Grattan  argued  that  the  principle  of  dependence 
was  embodied  in  the  declaratory  Act,  and  therefore 
that  its  repeal  was  a  resignation  of  the  pretended  right ; 
that  when  a  man  of  honour  affirms  that  he  possesses  a 

'  The  following;  is  Bacon's  account  of  its  origin  and  nature : 
'  Poyning,  the  better  to  m.-iko  compensation  of  tlie  mcH^reness  of  his 
forvices  in  the  wars  };y  acts  of  peace,  called  a  Parliament,  when  was 
made  that  memorable  Act  which  at  this  day  is  called  Poyning's  Law, 
whereby  all  the  statutes  of  England  were  made  to  bo  of  force  in  Ireland, 
for  before  they  were  not;  neither  are  any  now  in  force  in  Ireland  which 
were  made  since  that  time,  which  was  the  eighteenth  year  of  the  King.' 
—History  of  llcnry  VII. 


80  HENRY   FLOOD. 

certain  power,  and  afterwards  solemnly  retracts  hla 
declaration,  it  is  equivalent  to  a  distinct  disavowal, 
and  that  the  same  laws  of  honour  apply  to  nations  and 
to  individuals  ;  that  to  require  an  express  renunciation 
from  England  would  be  to  exhibit  a  distrustful  and 
an  overbearing  spirit,  and  would  keep  alive  the  ill- 
feeling  between  the  two  countries  which  it  was  most 
important  to  allay ;  that  it  would  also  stultify  the  Irish 
Liberals,  for  it  would  imply  that  England  actually 
possessed  the  right  she  was  called  upon  to  renounce. 

To  these  reasonings  it  was  replied  tliat  the  decla- 
ratory law  did  not  make  a  right,  and  that  therefore  its 
repeal  could  not  unmake  it ;  that  though  Irish  Liberals 
maintained  that  England  had  never  possessed  the  right 
in  question,  tlie  English  Parliament  had  asserted  its 
authority",  and  tliat  the  repeal  of  the  declaratory  Act 
was  not  necessarily  anything  more  than  the  Avithdrawal 
of  that  assertion  as  a  matter  of  expediency  for  the 
present;  that  an  express  renunciation  would  be  a 
charter  of  Irish  liberties  such  as  no  legal  quibble 
could  evade;  and  that  if  England  had  no  desire  to 
re-assert  her  claim,  she  could  have  no  objection  to 
make  it.  It  was  added  that  the  history  of  English 
dealings  with  Ireland  showed  plainly  how  necessary  it 
was  to  leave  no  loophole  or  possibility  of  encroacliment. 
It  was  a  peculiarity  of  the  Irish  question  that  the  in- 
dependence of  the  Irisli  Parliament  was  bitterly  opposed 
in  England,  on  different  grounds,  by  the  most  opposite 
parties.  The  high  prerogative  party  objected  to  it  as 
a  measure  of  political  emancipation.  The  trading 
classes,  who  constituted  the  chief  strength  of  the  Whig 
party,  were  equally  opposed  to  it  through  their  jealousy 
of  Irish  trade. 

In  addition  to  these  general  considerations,  several 


SIMPLE    REPEAL.  87 

circumstances  had  occurred  in  England  which  greatly 
disturbed  the  public  mind.  Lord  Abingdon,  in  the 
English  House  of  Lords,  had  drawn  a  distinction 
between  a  right  to  internal  and  a  right  to  external 
legislation,  and  had  argued  that,  while  England  had 
relinquished  the  former,  she  liad  retained  the  latter. 
An  English  law  with  reference  to  the  importation  of 
sugar  from  St.  Domingo  had  been  drawn  up  in  terms 
that  seemed  applicable  to  Ireland,  and  Lord  Mansfield 
had  decided  an  old  Irish  law  case. 

The  Simple  Repeal  question  was  not  started  by 
Flood,  but  it  gained  its  importance  chiefly  from  his 
adhesion  to  the  party  who  were  yet  unsatisfied.  He 
brought  forward  their  arguments  w^th  his  usual  force, 
and  concluded  his  speccli  with  an  appeal  of  great 
solemnity,  which  bears  every  mark  of  earnest  feel- 
ing. 'AVere  the  voice,'  he  said,  'with  which  I  now 
utter  this,  the  last  effort  of  expiring  nature  ;  were  the 
accent  which  conveys  it  to  you  the  breath  that  was  to 
waft  me  to  that  grave  to  which  we  all  tend,  and  to 
which  my  footsteps  rapidly  accelerate,  I  w^ould  go  on, 
I  would  make  my  exit  by  a  loud  demand  for  your 
rights:  and  I  call  upon  tlie  God  of  truth  and  liberty, 
who  has  so  often  favoured  you,  and  who  has  of  late 
looked  down  upon  you  with  such  a  peculiar  grace  and 
glory  of  protection,  to  continue  to  you  His  inspirings, 
to  crown  you  with  the  spirit  of  His  completion,  and  to 
assist  you  against  the  errors  of  those  that  are  honest, 
as  well  as  against  tlie  machinations  of  those  that  are 
not.'  iMost  of  the  Volunteers,  headed  by  the  lawyer 
corps,  whose  opinion  on  such  a  question  naturally  car- 
ried great  weight,  supported  Flood,  and  the  popularity 
of  Grrattan  in  the  coimtry  waned  as  rapidly  as  it  had 
risen.     It  became  customary  to  say  that  nothing  had 


88  HENRY   FLOOD. 

really  been  gained  until  the  formal  renunciation  had 
been  made ;  and  at  last  Fox  brought  forward  in  Eng- 
land the  required  renunciatory  Act. 

It  was  in  tlie  course  of  this  controversy  that  the 
fanions  collision  between  Flood  and  Grrattan  took 
phu-e.  It  had  been  for  some  time  evident  to  close  ob- 
servers that  it  must  come  sooner  or  later.  For  severni 
years  the  friendship  between  these  two  great  men  had 
been  growing  colder  and  colder,  and  giving  way  to 
feelings  of  hostility.  Flood  felt  keenly  the  manner  in 
which  he  had  been  superseded  as  leader  of  tlie  Liberals. 
He  could  not  reconcile  himself  to  occupying  a  second 
place  to  a  man  so  much  younger  than  himself,  after 
liaving  been  for  so  long  a  period  the  most  conspicuous 
cliaracter  in  the  country.  The  particular  subject  of 
the  independence  of  Parliament  he  had  brought  for- 
ward again  and  again  w^hen  Grattan  was  a  mere  boy, 
and  it  seemed  hard  that  another  should  reap  the  glory 
of  his  long  and  thankless  labour.  He  had  sat  in  Par- 
liament for  sixteen  years  before  G  rattan  had  entered 
it.  He  had  borne  the  brunt  of  the  battle  at  a  time 
when  the  prospects  of  the  cause  seemed  hopeless  ;  and 
if  less  brilliant  than  his  rival  he  was  deemed  by  most 
men  fully  his  equal  in  solid  capacity,  and  greatly  his 
superior  in  experience.  Grattan,  on  the  otlier  hand, 
regarded  Flood's  adhesion  to  the  Harcourt  Administra- 
tion as  an  act  of  apostac}^,  and  his  agitation  of  Simple 
Pepcal  as  a  struggle  for  a  personal  triumph  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  interests  of  the  country.  He  dreaded  the 
permanence  of  the  Volunteer  Convention,  the  increase 
of  the  ill-feeling  existing  between  the  tw^o  countries, 
and  a  needless  and  dangerous  agitation  of  the  public 
mind.  Ill  healtli  aud  the  position  he  had  so  long 
held  had  given  Flood  a  somewhat  authoritative  and 
petulant  tone,  wliich   contrasted   remarkably  with  his 


COLLISION   WITH   GIIATTAN.  89 

urbanity  in  private  life ;  and  Grattan,  on  his  side,  was 
embittered  by  the  sudden  decay  of  his  popularity,  and 
by  several  sliglit  and  not  very  successful  conflicts  witli 
his  rival. 

Under  these  circumstances  it  needed  but  little  to 
produce  an  explosion,  and  that  little  was  supplied  by 
a  singularly  discourteous  and  unfair  allusion  to  Flood's 
illness  which  escaped  from  Grattan  in  the  heat  of  the 
debate.  Flood  rose  indignantly,  and,  after  a  few  words 
of  preface,  launched  into  a  fierce  diatribe  against  his 
opponent.  His  task  was  a  difficult  one,  for  few  men 
presented  a  more  unassailable  character.  Invective, 
however,  of  the  most  outrageous  description,  was  the 
custom  of  the  time,  and  invective  between  good  and 
great  men  is  necessarily  unjust.  He  dwelt  with  bitter 
emphasis  on  the  grant  the  Parliament  had  made  to 
Grattan.  He  described  him  as  '  that  mendicant  patriot 
who  was  bought  by  his  country,  and  sold  that  coimtry 
for  prompt  payment ;'  and  he  dilated  with  the  keenest 
sarcasm  upon  the  decline  of  liis  popularity.  He  con- 
cluded, in  a  somewhat  exultant  tone  :  '  Permit  me  to 
say  tliat  if  the  honourable  gentleman  often  provokes 
such  contests  as  this,  he  will  have  but  little  to  boast  of 
at  the  end  of  the  session.'  Grattan,  however,  was  not 
unprepared.  He  had  long  foreseen  the  collision,  and 
had  embodied  all  his  angry  feelings  in  one  elaborate 
speech.  Employing  the  common  artifice  of  an  ima- 
ginary character,  he  painted  the  whole  career  of  his 
opponent  in  the  blackest  colours,  condensed  in  a  few 
masterly  sentences  all  the  charges  that  had  ever  been 
brought  against  him,  and  sat  down,  having  delivered 
an  invective  which,  for  concentrated  and  crushing 
power,  is  almost  or  altogether  unrivalled  in  modern 
oratory. 

Thus  terminated  the  friendship  between  two  men 


DO  HENRY    FLOOD. 

who  had  done  more  than  any  who  were  then  living  for 
their  country,  who  had  known  eacli  other  for  twenty 
years,  and  whose  lives  are  imperishably  associated  in 
lii story.  Flood  afterwards  presided  at  a  meeting  of 
the  Volunteers,  wliere  a  resolution  complimentary  to 
Grattan  was  passed  ;  Grattan,  in  his  pamphlet  on  the 
Union,  and  more  than  once  in  private  conversation, 
gave  noble  testimony  to  tlie  greatness  of  Flood ;  but 
they  were  never  reconciled  again,  and  their  cordial 
co-operation,  which  was  of  such  inestimable  import- 
ance to  the  country,  was  henceforth  almost  an  impos- 
sibility. 

The  dissension  between  the  Parliament  and  the 
Volunteers  had  now  become  very  marked,  and  it  was 
evident  that  there  existed  among  the  latter  a  party 
who  desired  open  war  with  England.  It  is  curious  that 
tlieir  leader  should  have  been  by  birth  an  Englishman, 
and  by  position  a  bishop.  The  Earl  of  Bristol  and 
Bishop  of  Derry  was  son  of  that  Lord  ITervey  who  was 
long  remembered  only  as  the  object  of  the  fiercest  of 
all  tlie  satires  of  Pope,  but  who  within  the  last  few 
years  has  been  revealed  in  altogether  a  new  light,  by 
the  publication  of  those  masterly  memoirs  in  which  he 
had  described  the  court  and  much  of  the  State  policy 
of  George  II.  The  character  of  the  Bishop  has  been 
very  differently  painted,  but  its  chief  ingredients  are 
sufficiently  evident,  whatever  controversy  there  may  be 
about  the  proportions  in  which  they  were  mixed.  He 
appears  to  have  been  a  man  of  respectable  learning 
and  of  real  talent,  sincerely  attached  to  liis  adopted 
country,  and  on  questions  of  religious  disqualifica- 
tion greatly  in  advance  of  most  of  his  contempo- 
raries ;  but  he  was  at  the  same  time  utterly  destitute 
of  the  distinctive  virtues  of  a  clergyman,  and  he 
was  one  of  the  most  dangerous  politicians  of  his  time. 


THE   BISIlOr    OF   DERRY.  91 

Vuin,  impetuous,  and  delighting  in  display,  -with  an 
insatiable  appetite  for  popularity,  and  utterly  reck- 
less about  the  consequences  of  his  acts,  he  exhibited, 
though,  an  English  peer  and  an  Irish  bishop,  all  the 
characteristics  of  the  mcst  irresponsible  adventurer. 
Under  other  circumstances  he  might  have  been  capable 
of  the  policy  of  an  Alberoni.  In  Ireland,  for  a  short 
time,  he  rode  upon  tlie  crest  of  the  wave ;  and  if  he 
L-ad  obtained  the  control  he  aspired  to  over  the  Volun- 
teer movement,  he  would  probably  have  headed  a  civil 
war.  But  though  a  man  of  clear,  prompt  judgment, 
of  indisputable  courage,  and  of  considerable  popular 
talents,  he  had  neither  the  caution  of  a  great  rebel 
nor  the  settled  principles  of  a  great  statesman.  His 
habits  were  extremely  convivial ;  he  talked  with  reck- 
less fully  to  his  friends,  and  even  to  British  officers,  of 
ll\e  appeal  to  arms  which  he  meditated  ;  and  he  exhi- 
bited a  passion  for  ostentation  which  led  men  seriously 
to  question  his  sanity.  'He  appeared  always,'  says 
Harrington,  '  dressed  with  peculiar  care  and  neatness, 
generally  entirely  in  pui'ple,  and  he  wore  diamond  knee 
and  shoe  buckles  ;  but  what  I  most  observed  was,  that 
he  wore  white  gloves  with  gold  fringe  round  the  wrists, 
and  large  gold  tassels  hangiug  from  them.'  The  osten- 
tation he  manifested  in  his  dress  he  displayed  in 
every  part  of  liis  public  life.  A  troop  of  horse,  com- 
manded by  his  nephew,  used  to  accompany  him  when 
lie  went  out,  and  to  mount  guard  at  his  door.  On 
one  occasion  he  drove  in  royal  state  to  a  great  meet- 
ing which  was  held  at  the  Ivotundo,  escorted  by  a 
body  of  the  Volunteers,  who  sounded  their  trumpets 
;us  they  passed  the  Parliameut-hoiise,  much  to  the  asto- 
nishment of  the  assembled  members. 

Fortunately,  however,  the  influence  of  the  Bishop 
with    the    Volunteers,   though    very    great,   was    not 


92  UENRT   FLOOD. 

absolute.  He  desired  to  become  tlicir  president,  but, 
though  he  had  many  partisans,  Lord  Charlemont  was 
elected  to  the  place ;  and  in  the  Convention  itself 
the  practised  oratory  of  Flood  gave  him  a  com- 
plete ascendency.  At  the  same  time,  it  is  not  sur- 
prising that  the  proceedings  of  the  Volunteers  should 
have  created  much  alarm  in  many  minds,  and  that 
stronjr  wishes  should  be  felt  for  tlie  dissolution  of  the 
Convention.  But  for  this  measure  Flood  was  not 
prepared.  He  maintained  that  two  great  dangers  had 
menaced  tlie  independence  of  Parliament,  that  it 
might  be  evaded  by  a  legal  quibble,  ond  that  it 
might  be  betrayed  by  the  corruption  of  its  members. 
By  obtaining  from  England  a  distinct  renunciation  of 
all  supremacy,  he  had  provided  effectually  against  the 
first  of  these  dangers.  By  reforming  the  Parliament, 
he  sought  to  guard  against  the  latter.  But,  in  order 
that  a  Reform  Bill  should  be  broucrlit  forward  with 

CD 

any  chance  of  success,  he  believed  it  to  be  essential 
that  it  should  be  supported  by  all  the  tlireatening 
weight  of  the  Volunteer  Convention.  Had  he  suc- 
ceeded in  carrying  the  reform  he  meditated,  he  would 
liave  placed  the  independence  of  Ireland  on  the  broad 
basis  of  tlie  people's  will,  he  would  have  fortified  and 
completed  the  glorious  work  tliat  he  had  himself  begun, 
and  he  would  have  averted  a  series  of  calamities  wliicli 
have  not  even  yet  spent  their  force.  We  should  then 
never  have  known  the  long  niglit  of  corruption  that 
overcast  the  splendour  of  Irish  liberty.  The  blood  of 
1798  might  never  have  flowed.  The  Legislative  Union 
would  never  have  been  consummated,  or,  if  there  had 
been  a  Union,  it  woidd  have  been  effected  by  the  will 
of  the  people,  and  not  by  the  treachery  of  their  repre- 
sentatives, and  it  would  have  been  remembered  only 
with  gratitude  or  Vv^ith  content. 


THE    VOLUNTEER   REFORM   RILL.  93 

The  Reform  Bill  was  drawn  up  by  Flood,  and  was 
first  submitted  to  the  Volunteer  Convention  for  their 
sanction.  In  one  respect  it  was  glaringly  defective. 
It  proposed  to  extend  tlie  franchise  largely,  but  it  gave 
no  political  power  to  the  Catholics.  On  this  point 
both  Flood  and  Charlemont  were  strenuously  opposed 
to  Grattan  ;  and  when,  in  1782,  a  measure  had  been 
brought  forward  to  enable  the  Catholics  to  purchase 
estates.  Flood  strongly  supported  an  amendment  ex- 
cepting all  borough  rights  by  which  members  might 
be  returned  to  Parliament.  With  this  grave  exception, 
the  raeasur(>»was  a  comprehensive  one,  and  would  have 
effectually  cured  the  great  evils  of  the  Legislature.  It 
proposed  to  open  the  close  boroughs  by  giving  votes  to 
all  Protestant  forty-shilling  freeholders,  and  to  lease- 
holders of  thirty-one  years,  of  w^hich  fifteen  were  un- 
expired. It  provided  that  in  the  case  of  decayed 
boroughs  the  franchise  should  be  extended  to  the 
adjoining  parishes  ;  that  pensioners  who  held  their 
pensions  during  pleasure  should  be  excluded  from 
Parliament ;  that  those  who  accepted  a  pension  for  life 
or  a  Government  place  should  vacate  their  seats ;  that 
each  member  should  take  on  oath  that  he  had  not 
been  guilty  of  bribery  at  his  election ;  and  that  the 
duration  of  Parliament  should  be  limited  to  three 
years. 

It  was  in  truth  a  night  of  momentous  import 
the  countr}^  wlien  Flood  brought  forward  in  Par' 
the  Volunteer  Reform  Bill,  and  the  crowded  benches 
and  the  anxious  faces  that  surrounded  him  showed  how 
fully  the  magnitude  of  the  struggle  was  appreciated. 
The  elation  of  recovered  popularity  and  the  proud  con- 
sciousness of  the  grandeur  of  his  position,  dispelled  the 
clouds  that  had  so  long  hung  over  his  mind,  and  im- 
parted a  glow  to  his  elo(|uen(;e  worthy  of  his  brightest 


94  HENRY  FLOOD. 

days.  He  had  too  much  tact  even  to  mention  the 
Volunteers  in  his  opening  speech  ;  but  the  uniform  he 
wore,  the  fire  of  his  eye,  and  the  almost  regal  majesty 
of  his  tone  and  of  his  gesture  reminded  all  who  heard 
him  of  the  source  of  his  inspiration.  He  was  opposed 
by  Yelverton,  the  Attorney- General.  Yelverton  was 
at  all  times  a  powerful  speaker,  but  on  this  night  ho 
seems  to  have  made  liis  greatest  effort.  He  called 
upon  the  House  to  reject  the  Bill  without  even  ex- 
amining its  intrinsic  merits,  as  coming  from  tlie  emis- 
saries of  an  armed  body ;  he  denounced  it  as  an  insult 
and  a  menace,  as  a  manifest  infringement  .of  the  privi- 
leges of  Parliament ;  and  he  appealed  to  all  parties  to 
rally  round  the  liberties  of  their  country,  so  lately 
rescued  from  English  domination,  and  now  threatened 
by  a  military  council.  Flood,  in  liis  reply,  rested — 
perhaps  rather  disingenuously — on  liis  not  having 
spoken  of  the  Volunteers.  He  had  not  mentioned 
tlicm,  but  if  they  were  attacked  he  was  prepared  to 
support  them  ;  and  then  he  digressed,  with  the  adroit- 
ness of  a  practised  debater,  into  their  defence.  He 
reminded  his  hearers  how  much  tliey  owed  to  that 
body  ;  how  the  Volunteers  had  emancipated  their  trade 
and  struck  off  their  chains  ;  how  absurd,  how  ungrate- 
ful it  would  be  to  assail  their  deliverers  as  enemies, 
and  to  brand  them  as  hostile  to  liberty.  Yet  it  was 
not  for  the  Volunteers  that  he  asked  reform  ;  he  would 
rather  place  the  question  on  its  own  merits.  'We 
come  to  you,'  he  said,  '  as  members  of  this  House  ;  in 
that  capacity  we  present  you  with  a  Reform  Bill. 
Will  you  receive  it  from  us  ? ' 

He  was,  however,  but  feebly  supported  and  strongly 
opposed.  Many  members  dreaded  reform  on  personal 
grounds,  and  were  doubtless  glad  of  a  plausible  pretext 
for  opposing  it;  others  believed  that  the  Convention 


DANGER   OF   THE   CONTENTION.  95 

was  the  most  pressing  danger.  Lord  Cliarlemont,  the 
leader  of  the  Volunteers,  who,  though  not  a  member, 
had  a  great  influence  in  the  Lower  House,  was  timid, 
vacillating,  and  perplexed.  The  Grovernment  exerted 
all  its  influence  against  Flood,  and  a  majority,  actuated 
by  various  motives,  rejected  the  Bill.  The  numbers 
were  158  to  49,  and  it  is  said  that  more  than  halt 
the  majority  were  placemen.  A  resolution  to  the 
effect  that  the  dignity  of  the  House  required  as- 
serting, whicli  was  tantamount  to  a  censure  of  the 
Volunteers,  was  then  moved  and  carried.  Grrattan 
voted  with  Flood  on  the  reform  question,  and  against 
him  on  the  subsequent  resolution.  Lord  Charlemont 
adjourned  the  Convention  sine  die,  and  its  members 
separated  with  an  alacrity  and  a  submission  that  fur- 
nished the  most  eloquent  refutation  of  the  charges  of 
their  opponents. 

The  conduct  of  Flood  in  this  transaction  has  given 
rise  to  much  controversy,  and  it  is  difficult  to  pro- 
nounce very  decidedly  upon  it.  There  can  be  no 
question  that  the  existence  of  an  assembly  consisting 
of  the  representatives  of  a  powerful  mililaiy  force, 
convened  for  the  purpose  of  discussing  political  ques- 
tions, was  extremely  menacing,  both  to  the  Parliament 
and  the  connection.  If  the  Bishop  of  Derry  had  ob- 
tained the  presidency,  matters  would  probably  have 
been  pushed  to  a  rebellion.  This  period  was  perhaps 
the  only  one  in  Irish  history  when  the  connection 
between  the  two  countries  might  have  been  easily 
dissolved,  and  wlien  the  dissolution  would  not  have 
involved  Ireland  in  anarchy  or  civil  war.  In  the 
prostrate  condition  to  which  England  ha^  been  re- 
duced, she  could  scarcely  have  resisted  an  organised 
army,  which  rose  at  last  to  more  than  100,000  soldiers, 
which  was  commanded  by  the  men  of  most  property 


9G  HENRY  FLOOD. 

and  influence  in  the  country,  and  was  supported  by  tho 
entlmsiasm  of  the  nation.  Such  an  or^^^anisation  was 
fjir  more  powerful  than  that  which  had  just  wrested 
the  colonies  from  her  grasp.  Had  the  severance  been 
effected,  Ireland  possessed  a  greater  amount  of  legis- 
lative talent  than  at  any  former  period,  and  lier  newly 
emancipated  Parliament  only  needed  a  reform  to 
become  a  most  efficient  organ  of  national  representa- 
tion. There  was  then  no  serious  conflict  of  classes, 
and  the  Catholic  question,  tliough  it  caused  division 
among  politicians,  was  at  this  time  no  source  of  danger 
to  the  country.  The  Catholics  had  neither  education, 
leaders,  nor  ambition.  They  were  perfectly  peaceful, 
and  indeed  quiescent,  and  the  process  of  emancipation 
would  probably  have  been  carried  out  silently  and 
tranquilly.  The  most  obnoxious  of  the  penal  laws  had 
already  been  repealed.  The  Volunteers  had  passed  a 
resolution  approving  of  that  repeal.  The  rising  school 
of  politicians  were  in  favour  of  granting  political 
power  to  the  Catholics,  and  the  cause  had  no  more  un- 
hesitating supporter  than  the  Bishop  of  Deny. 

This  was  the  course  which  the  Volunteer  movement 

would   probably  have  taken  if  the  influence   of  the 

Bishop  had  prevailed.    Flood,  however,  does  not  appear 

to  have  had  any  desire  to  produce  rebellion,^  and  he 

was  no  friend  of  Catholic  emancipation.     His  object 

\s   to    overawe   the   Parliament   by  the  menace    of 

ilitary  force,  in  order  to  induce  it  to  reform  itself. 

is  sufficiently  manifest  that  such   an  attempt  was 

^^tremely  dangerous  and  unconstitutional,  but  it  was 

a  desperate  remedy  applied  to  a  desperate  disease.     It 

*  See,  however,  on  the  other  side,  a  curious  traditionary  anecdote 
related  by  O'Connell,  on  the  authority  of  B;irtholome\r  Hoare,  a  friend 
of  Flood,  and  preserred  in  O'Neil  Daunt's  'Ireland  and  her  Agitators/ 
pp.  4,  5. 


rOLlTICAL   ATTITUDE   OF   TIEE   VOLUNTEERS.  97 

was  a  matter  of  life  or  death  to  the  Irish  Constitution 
that  the  system  of  corruption  and  rotten  boroughs 
which  gave  the  Castle  a  sure  and  overwhelming  majority 
should  be  ended,  and,  as  a  great  majority  of  the 
members  had  a  personal  interest  in  its  permanence, 
some  degree  of  intimidation  was  absolutely  necessary. 
Even  the  Reform  Bill  of  1832  would  never  have  been 
passed  if  the  country  had  been  tranquil.  There  was, 
no  doubt,  a  considerable  difference  between  the  display 
of  force  to  carry  free  trade  and  legislative  indepen- 
dence in  accordance  with  the  wishes  of  Parliament, 
and  the  display  of  a  similar  force  to  overawe  the  Par- 
liament ;  but  if  the  liberties  of  Ireland  were  to  be 
permanent,  the  reform  was  absolutely  necessary,  and  at 
this  time  it  could  in  no  other  way  have  been  effected. 
Had  Charlemont,  Grattan,  and  Flood  been  cordially 
united,  it  would  probably  have  been  forced  through 
Parliament,  and  the  Constitution  of  1782  would  have 
been  established.  Whether,  h(3wever,  the  Volunteers, 
flushed  with  a  new  conquest,  would  have  consented  to 
disband,  may  reasonably  be  doubted.  Fox,  in  a  very 
earnest  letter,  urging  the  Irish  Government  to  resist 
the  Volunteer  demand  to  the  uttermost,  said :  'The 
question  is  not  whether  this  or  that  measure  shall  take 
place,  but  whether  the  Constitution  of  Ireland,  which 
Irish  patriots  are  so  proud  of  having  established,  shall 
exist,  or  whether  the  Government  shall  be  as  purely 
military  as  ever  it  was  under  tJic  Proetorian  bands.' 
Tlie  defensive  utility  of  the  Volunteers  had  terminated 
w^ith  the  peace ;  and  their  desire  of  encroaching  on  the 
political  sphere  had  grown.  I  venture,  however,  to 
tliink  tliat  tlie  probabilities  were,  on  the  whole,  in 
favour  of  the  peaceful  dispersion  of  the  force  wlien  its 
work  was  accomplished.  The  French  Revolution, 
which  has  given  so  violent  and  democratic  a  tendency 
6 


98  HENRY   FLOOD. 

to  most  popular  movemeuts,  had  not  yet  taken  place. 
The  Volunteers,  as  I  have  said,  were  guided  by  the 
rank  and  property  of  the  country,  and  these  were 
amply  represented  in  the  Convention.  Above  all,  the 
moderation  of  the  assembly  in  selecting  Charlemont 
for  its  head,  and  in  dispersing  peacefully  after  its 
defeat,  may  be  taken  as  a  sufficient  evidence  of  the 
patriotism  of  its  members. 

All  the  leading  men,  however,  were  somewhat  below 
the  occasion.  Grattan  was  not  a  member  of  the  Con- 
vention. He  would  not  co-operate  with  Flood,  and  he 
utterly  disapproved  of  the  continuance  of  the  Conven- 
tion, and  of  all  attempts  to  overawe  the  Legislature. 
Charlemont  remained  at  the  head  of  the  Volunteers 
chiefly  in  order  to  moderate  them,  and  his  opinion  on 
the  question  at  issue  was,  in  reality,  little  different 
from  that  of  Grattan.  The  Bishop  of  Derry  was  vio- 
lent, vain,  and  foolish.  Flood  was  but  too  open  to  the 
imputation  of  having  stirred  up  the  question  of  simple 
repeal  through  envj  at  the  triumph  of  Grattan,  and  of 
aggrandising  the  power  of  the  Convention,  in  which 
he  was  almost  supreme,  through  jealousy  of  Parliament, 
in  which  his  influence  had  diminished.  In  under- 
taking an  enterprise  of  so  perilous  and  unconstitutional 
a  character,  it  ought  at  least  to  have  been  made  certain 
that  the  voice  of  the  people  was  with  the  Volunteers ; 
but  no  step  whatever  appears  to  have  been  taken  to 
obtain  petitions  or  demonstrations,  and  at  the  very 
time  when  Flood  was  pushing  the  country  to  the  verge 
of  a  civil  war,  he  was  damping  the  enthusiasm  of  the 
Catholics  by  carefully  excluding  them  from  his  scheme 
of  reform. 

The  effects  of  this  episode  upon  the  country  were 
very  injurious.  Violent  riots  broke  out  in  Dublin, 
and  the  mob  forced  its  way  into  the  Parliament  House. 


I. AST   YEARS   OF   THE   BISHOP   OF   DEIiRT.  99 

The  Parliament  Lad  shown  some  spirit  in  refusing 
even  to  entertain  a  Bill  emanating  from  a  military 
force,  but,  as  it  refused  with  equal  pertinacity  to  yield 
to  subsequent  Reform  Bills  which  were  brought  forward 
without  military  assistance,  and  with  the  support  of 
petitions  from  twenty-six  counties,  it  neither  received 
nor  (kscrved  credit.  The  Volunteer  Convention  dis- 
solved itself;  but  the  Volunteers  themselves,  with 
diminished  importance,  and  under  the  guidance  of 
inferior  men,  continued  for  many  years  in  a  divided 
and  broken  state,  and  the  United  Irishmen  rose  out  of 
their  embers. 

The  bishop  who  had  occupied  so  prominent  a  place 
in  the  movement  afterwards  retired,  on  the  plea  of  ill- 
health,  to  Italy,  where  he  liv(;d  for  many  years  a  wild 
and  scandalous-  life,  retaining  the  emoluments  but 
utterly  neglecting  the  duties  of  his  bishopric,  scoffing 
openly  at  religion,  and  adopting  without  disguise  the 
lax  moral  habits  of  Neapolitan  society.  His  wealth, 
his  good-nature,  his  munificent  patronage  of  art,^  and 
his  brilliant  social  qualities  made  him  very  popular, 
and  in  his  old  age  he  was  a  lover  of  Lady  Hamilton, 
to  whom  lie  was  accustomed  to  write  in  a  strain  of 
most  unepiscopal  fervour.  He  fell  into  tlie  hands  of 
the  Frencli  in  1799,  and  was  imprisoned  at  Milan  for 
eighteen  months.     He  died  near  Rome  in  ISOS.'* 

The  career  of  Flood  in  tiie  Irish  Parliament  wns 

'  We  have  an  amusing  illustration  of  liis  art  tasto  in  an  engraving  of 
one  of  the  most  indecent  of  tlic  pictures  of  Albano,  '  Act.'con  Discovering 
I)i:inaan<l  her  Nymphs  just  Emerging  from  the  Ilath/  vliieh  is  dedicaled 
to  'tlie  Karl  of  Bristol  and  Lord  l^ishop  of  Derry;'  underneath  are  tho 
Inshop's  arms  surmount<.-d  by  the  mitre,  and  a  little  below  the  mitre  iii 
the  bishop's  motto — '  Je  no  I'oublierai  jamais.' 

■  '  There  is  much  curious  information  about  the  hitter  years  of  this 
eccentric  bishop  in  the  'Memoirs  of  Lady  Hamilton,'  and  in  those  of  the 
Comtcsse  do  Liclitcnau. 


100  HENKY   FLOOD. 

now  rapidly  drawing  to  a  close.  In  the  following  year 
lie  made  another  effort  to  induce  the  Parliament  to 
reform  its  constitution  ;  but,  as  he  was  doubtless  well 
aware,  such  an  attempt,  when  opposed  by  the  Grovern- 
ment  and  unsupported  by  the  Volunteers,  was  at  that 
time  almost  hopeless.  The  Reform  Bill,  notwith- 
standing the  petitions  in  its  favour,  was  rejected  and 
Flood  shortly  after  put  into  execution  a  design  that  he 
had  conceived  many  years  before,  of  entering  the  Par- 
liament of  England.  His  failure  there  is  well  known. 
His  habits  had  been  already  formed  for  an  Irish 
audience,  and,  as  Grattan  said  of  him,  '  he  was  an  oak 
of  the  forest  too  great  and  too  old  to  be  transplanted 
at  fifty.'  He  was  also  guilty  of  much  imprudence. 
Desiring  to  act  in  the  most  independent  manner,  he 
proclaimed  openly  that  he  would  not  identify  himself 
with  cither  of  the  great  parties  in  Parliament.  He 
tlius  prejudiced  both  sides  of  the  House  against  him, 
and  deprived  himself  of  that  support  which  is  of  such 
great  consequence  to  a  debater.  He  spoke  first  on  the 
India  Bill,  which  ultimately  led  to  the  downfall  of  the 
Coalition  Ministry.  It  was  a  subject  about  which  he 
knew  very  little  ;  but  he  rose,  as  a  practised  speaker 
often  docs,  to  make  a  few  remarks  in  a  conversational 
tone,  to  detect  some  flaw  in  a  preceding  speaker's 
argument,  or  to  throw  light  upon  some  particular 
section  of  the  subject,  without  intending  to  make  an 
elaborate  speech,  or  to  review  the  entire  question. 
Immediately  from  the  lobbies  and  the  coffee-room  the 
members  came  crowding  in,  anxious  to  hear  a  speaker 
of  whom  such  great  expectations  were  entertained. 
He  seems  to  have  thought  that  it  would  be  disrespect- 
ful to  those  members  to  sit  down  at  once,  so  he  con- 
tinued extempore,  and  soon  showed  his  little  knowledge 
of  the    subject.      Wlien    he    concluded,   there   was  a 


niS   ENGLISH   CAREER.  101 

universal  feeling  of  disappointment.  A  member 
named  Courtenay  rose,  and  completed  his  discomfiture 
by  a  most  virulent  and  satirical  attack,  which  the  rules 
of  the  House  prevented  him  from  answering.  It  is 
liardly  necessary  to  say  that  Courtenay  was  an  Irishman. 
He  confessed  afterwards  to  Lord  Eyron  that  he  had 
been  actuated  by  a  personal  motive.^ 

After  this  failure.  Flood  scarcely  ever  spoke  again. 
Once,  however,  in  1790,  his  genius  shone  out  witli 
something:  of  its  old  brilliancv  in  brinn:inor  forward  a 
Keform  Bill.  His  proposition  was  that  100  members, 
chosen  by  county  household  suffrage,  should  be  added 
to  the  House  ;  and  the  speech  in  which  he  defended  it 
was  much  admired  by  all  parties.  Burke  said  that  lie 
had  retrieved  his  reputation.  Fox  declared  that  his 
proposition  was  the  best  that  liad  been  proposed,  and 
Pitt  based  his  opposition  to  it  almost  exclusively  upon 
the  distm-bed  state  of  public  affairs.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
tliat  these  praises  in  some  degree  soothed  his  mind, 
which  must  have  been  bitterly  mortified  by  his  previous 
disappointment.  In  his  reply  upon  this  question, 
when  answering  some  charge  that  had  been  brought 
against  him,  he  alluded  in  a  very  touching  manner  to 
the  isolation  of  his  position.  '  I  appeal  to  you,'  he 
said,  '  whether  my  conduct  has  been  tliat  of  an  advo- 
cate or  an  agitator  ;  whether  I  have  often  trespassed 
upon  your  attention  ;  whether  ever,  except  on  a  ques- 
tion of  importance  ;  and  whether  I  then  wearied  you 
with   ostentation   or  prolixity.     I  am  as  independent 

'  Wraxall,  spcakinj;  of  Flood's  failure,  says:  'The  slow,  measured, 
and  sententious  style  of  enunciation  wliich  characterised  his  eloquence, 
however  calculated  to  cxcito  admiration  it  might  be  in  the  senate  of  the 
Bister  kingdom,  appeared  to  English  ears  cold,  stiff,  and  deficient  in 
some  of  the  best  recommendations  to  attention.'  This  passage  is  very 
curious,  as  showing  how  little  the  present  popular  conception  of  Irish 
elorjucnce  prevailed  in  the  last  century. 


102  IIENRT   FLOOD. 

in  fortune  and  nature  as  the  honourable  member  him- 
self. I  have  no  fear  but  that  of  doing  wrong,  nor  have 
I  a  hope  on  the  subject  but  that  of  doing  some  service 
before  I  die.  The  accident  of  my  situation  has  not 
made  me  a  partisan ;  and  I  never  lamented  that  situa- 
tion till  now  that  I  find  myself  as  unprotected  as  I 
fear  the  people  of  England  will  be  on  this  occasion.' 
After  this  he  only  made  one  other  speech  —on  the  French 
treaty — of  any  importance.  He  is  said  in  his  last  years 
to  have  retired  much  from  society,  and  his  temper 
l)ecamc  gloomy  and  morose.     He  died  in  1791. 

When  he  felt  death  approaching  he  requested  his 
attendant  to  leave  the  room,  and  he  drew  his  last 
breath  alone.  Faithful  to  the  end  to  the  interests  of 
liis  country,  he  left  a  large  property  to  the  Dublin 
University,  cliiefly  for  the  encouragement  of  the  study 
of  Irish,  and  for  the  purchase  of  Irish  manuscripts. 

There  is  something  inexpressibly  melancholy  in  the 
life  of  tliis  man.  From  his  earliest  youth  his  ambition 
seems  to  liave  been  to  identify  himself  with  the  freedom 
of  his  country.  But  though  he  attained  to  a  position 
wliich,  before  him,  had  been  unknown  in  Ireland ; 
tliough  the  unanimous  verdict  of  his  contemporaries 
pronounced  Ijim  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  intellects 
that  ever  adorned  the  Irish  Parliament ;  and,  thougli 
tliere  is  not  a  single  act  of  his  life  which  may  not  be 
construed  in  a  sense  perfectly  in  harmony  with  honour 
and  witJi  patriotism,  yet  his  career  presents  one  long 
series  of  disappointments  and  reverses.  At  an  age 
when  most  statesmen  are  in  the  zenith  of  their  influence 
lie  sank  into  political  impotence.  The  party  he  had 
formed  discarded  him  as  its  leader.  The  reputation 
he  so  dearly  prized  was  clouded  and  assailed  ;  the  prin- 
ciples he  had  soami  germinated  and  fructified  indeed, 
but   otiicrs  reaped  tlieir  fruit,    and  lie  is  iiov^  scarcely 


DECLINE   OF   UIS   RErUTATION.  103 

remembered  except  as  the  object  of  a  powerful  invec- 
tive in  Ireland,  and  as  an  example  of  a  deplorable 
failure  in  England.  A  few  pages  of  oratory,  which 
probably  at  best  only  represent  the  substance  of  his 
speeches,  a  few  youthful  poems,  a  few  laboured  letters, 
and  a  biography  so  meagre  and  so  unsatisfactory  that  it 
scarcely  gives  us  any  insight  into  his  character,  are  all 
that  remain  of  Henry  Flood.  The  period  in  which  he 
lived,  a  jealous  and  uncertain  temper,  and  two  or  three 
lamentable  mistakes  of  judgment,  were  fatal  to  his 
reputation ;  and  he  laboured  for  a  people  who  have 
usually  been  peculiarly  indifferent  to  the  reputation  of 
their  great  men.  We  may  say  of  him  as  Grattan  said  of 
Kirwan :  '  The  curse  of  Swift  was  upon  him,  to  have 
been  born  an  Irishman  and  a  man  of  genius,  and  to 
have  used  his  talents  for  his  country's  good.' 


HENRY  G RATTAN. 

A  PAPER  was  found  in  Swift's  desk  after  his  death,  con- 
taining a  list  of  his  friends,  classified  as  grateful,  ungrate- 
ful, and  indifferent.  In  this  list  tlie  name  of  Grattan 
occurs  three  times,  and  each  time  it  is  marked  as  grate- 
ful. The  family  was  one  of  some  weight  in  the  country, 
and  the  father  of  the  subject  of  the  present  sketch  was 
Recorder  and  Member  for  Dublin.  As  I  Iiave  already 
had  occasion  to  observe,  Dr.  Lucas  was  his  colleague 
and  his  opponent,  and  a  bitter  animosity,  both  personal 
and  political,  subsisted  between  them.  The  Recorder 
seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  a  violent  and  overbearing 
temper,  firmly  wedded  to  liis  own  opinions,  and  ex- 
ceedingly intolerant  of  contradiction.  He  was  greatly 
exasperated  with  his  son  for  adopting  Liberal  politics, 
and  he  carried  his  resentment  so  far  as  to  mark  his 
displeasure  in  his  will.  Henry  Grattan  was  born  in 
the  year  1746.  From  his  earliest  youth  he  manifested 
tlie  activity  of  his  intellect,  and  the  force  and  energy 
of  his  character.  Some  foolish  nursery  tales  having 
produced  in  his  mind  those  superstitious  fears  that  are 
so  common  among  children,  he  determined,  when  a 
mere  boy,  to  emancipate  himself  from  their  control, 
and  was  accustomed  to  go  at  midnight  into  a  church- 
yard near  his  father's  house,  where  he  remained  till 
every  qualm  of  terror  had  subsided.  At  the  University 
he  distinguished  himself  greatly,  and  acquired  a 
passion  for  the  classics,  and  especially  for  the  great 
orators  of  antiquity,  that  never  deserted  him  through 
life.    Long  before  he  obtained  a  scat  in  Parliament  ho 


STUDIES    ORATORY.  105 

had  begun  to  cultivate  eloquence.  His  especial  models 
were  Bolingbroke  and  Junius,  and  his  metliod  was 
constant  recitation.  He  learnt  by  heart  certain  pas- 
sages of  his  speeches,  and  continually  revolved  tliern 
in  his  mind  till  he  had  elirainated  all  those  almost 
imperceptible  prolixities  that  exist  in  nearly  every 
written  composition.  By  this  method  he  brought  his 
sentences  to  a  degree  of  nervousness  and  of  condensa- 
tion that  is  scarcely  paralleled  in  oratory.  Several 
anecdotes  are  told  of  the  difficulties  into  which  his 
passion  for  recitation  brought  him.  On  one  occa- 
sion his  landlady  in  England  requested  his  friends  to 
remove  that  mad  young  gentleman  who  was  always 
talking  to  himself,  or  addressing  an  imaginary  person 
called  iMr.  Speaker.  On  anotJier,  when  apostrophising 
a  gibbet  in  Windsor  Forest,  he  was  interrupted  by  a 
tap  on  tlie  slioulder,  and  a  curious  enquiry  as  to  how 
he  liad  got  down.  His  letters  written  at  this  time 
show  that  he  was  subject  to  violent  fits  of  despond- 
cnc}'',  and  they  betray  also  a  morbidness  that  is  singu- 
larly unlike  his  character  in  after-years. 

Shortly  after  leaving  the  University  he  was  called  to 
tlic  Bar,  and  resided  for  some  time  in  tlie  Temple,  wliero 
lie  probably  occupied  himself  much  more  in  tlie  study 
of  oratory  than  of  law.  He  had  obtained  access  to 
tlie  House  of  Lords,  and  had  come  completely  under 
the  spell  of  Lord  Chatham's  eloquence.  He  wrote  an 
elaborate  character  of  Chatham,  which  was  inserted  in 
'Baratariana;'  and  in  a  letter  written  some  years  later 
lie  gives  a  long  and  very  minute  description  of  his 
style  of  speaking.  The  following  extract  will  be  read 
with  2:)leasure,  as  forming  a  very  vivid  description  of 
the  most  eflective  of  British  orators:  'He  was  very 
great,  but  very  odd  ;  he  spoke  in  a  style  of  conversa- 
tion ;  not,  however,  what   I   expected.     It  was  not  a 


iOG  HENRY    G RATTAN. 

speecli,  for  he  never  came  with  a  prepared  liaraiigue. 
His  style  was  not  regular  oratory,  like  Cicero  or  Demos- 
thenes, but  it  was  very  fine  and  very  elevated,  and 
above  the  ordinary  subjects  of  discourse.  .  .  .  Lord 
JNIansfield,  perhaps,  would  have  argued  the  case  better ; 
Charles  Townshend  would  have  made  a  better  speech  ; 
but  there  was  in  Lord  Chatham  a  grandeur  and  a 
manner  which  neither  had,  and  which  was  peculiar  to 
liim.  AVhat  Cicero  says  in  his  "Claris  Oratoribus" 
exactly  applies :  "  Formoo  dignitas,  corporis  motus, 
plenus  ct  artis  et  venustatis,  vocis  et  suavitas  et  mag- 
nitudo."  His  gesture  was  always  graceful.  He  was  an 
incomparable  actor ;  had  it  not  been  so  he  would  have 
appeared  ridiculous.  His  address  to  the  tapestry  and 
to  Lord  Effingham's  memory  required  an  incomparable 
actor,  and  he  was  that  actor.  Jlis  tones  were  remark- 
ably pleasing.  I  recollect  his  pronouncing  one  word 
— effete — in  a  soft,  charming  accent.  His  son  could 
not  have  pronounced  it  better.  He  was  often  called 
to  order.  On  one  occasion  he  said,  "  I  hope  some 
dreadful  calamity  will  befall  the  country  that  will 
open  the  eyes  of  the  King ; ''  and  then  he  introduced 
the  allusion  to  the  figure  drawing  the  curtains  of 
Priam,  and  gave  the  quotation.  He  was  called  to  order. 
He  stopjDed  and  said,  "What  I  have  spoken  I  liave  spoken 
conditionally,  but  now  I  retract  the  condition.  I  speak 
absolutely,  and  I  do  hope  that  some  signal  calamity 
will  befall  the  country;"  and  he  repeated  what  lie  had 
said.  He  then  fired  and  oratorised,  and  grew  extremely 
eloquent.  Ministers,  seeing  what  a  difficult  character 
they  had  to  deal  with,  thought  it  best  to  let  him  pro- 
ceed. On  one  occasion,  addressing  Lord  Mansfield,  lie 
said,  "  Who  are  the  evil  advisers  of  his  jNIajesty?  Is 
it  you?  is  it  you?  is  it  you?"  (pointing  to  the  Minis- 
ters, luitil  he  came  near  Lord  Mansfield).     Tliere  were 


DESCRIPTION   OF   CnATHAM.  107 

several  lords  round  him,  and  Lord  Chatham  said,  "  My 
Lords,  please  to  take  your  seats."  When  they  had  sat 
down,  he  pointed  to  Lord  Mansfield  and  said,  "Is  it 
you  ?  Methinks  Felix  trembles."  It  required  a  great 
actor  to  do  this.  Done  by  any  one  else  it  would  have 
been  miserable ^y]len  he  came  to  the  argumen- 
tative part  of  his  speech,  he  lowered  his  tone  so  as  to 
be  scarcely  audible ;  and  he  did  not  lay  so  much  stress 
on  those  parts  as  on  the  great  bursts  of  genius  and  tlie 
sublime  passages.  He  had  studied  action,  and  his 
gesture  was  graceful,  and  had  a  most  powerful  effect. 
His  speeches  required  good  acting,  and  he  gave  it  to 
tlicra.  Their  impression  was  great.  His  manner  was 
dramatic.  In  this  it  was  said  that  he  was  too  much  of 
a  mountebank,  but,  if  so,  it  was  a  great  mountebank. 
Perhaps  he  was  not  so  good  a  debater  as  his  son,  but  he 
was  a  much  better  orator,  a  better  scholar,  and  a  far 
greater  man.  Great  subjects,  great  empires,  great 
characters,  effulgent  ideas,  and  classical  illustrations, 
formed  tlie  material  of  his  speeches.' 

It  is  curious  that  Grattan,  who  was  so  sensible  to  the 
advantages  of  a  graceful  delivery  in  others,  should 
have  been  alwavs  remarkable  for  the  extreme  singfu- 
larity  and  awkwardness  of  his  own,  Byron,  who  other- 
wise admired  his  speaking  exceedingly,  called  it  a 
'  harlequin  manner.'  ^  O'Connell  said  that  he  nearly 
swept  the  ground  with  his  gestures,  and  the  motion  of 
his  arms  has  been  compared  to  the  rolling  of  a  ship  in 
a  heavy  swell. 

While  the  genius  of  Chatham  had  stimulated  the 
ambition  of  Grattan  to  the  highest  degree,  the  friend- 
ship of  Flood  was   directing  his    enthusiasm  in   the 

•  This  ^as  in  prose.     In  his  poetry  lie  described  Grattan  as 

•  "With  all  that  Demosthenes  wanted  endowed, 
And  his  rival  or  victor  in  all  he  possessed.' 

7he  Irish  Avatar. 


108  HENRY  GHATTAN. 

channel  of  Irish  politics.  These  two  men,  afterwards 
such  bitter  rivals,  were  at  first  intimate  friends ;  and 
the  experience  and  the  counsel  of  Flood  had  un- 
doubtedly great  influence  in  moulding  the  character 
of  Grattan.  They  declaimed  together,  they  acted 
together  in  private  theatricals,  they  wrote  togetlier  in 
'  Baratariana,'  and  they  discussed  together  the  prospects 
of  their  party. 

In  1775  Lord  Charlemont  brouglit  Grattan  into 
Parliament.  The  circumstances  \vere,  in  some  respects, 
very  favourable  for  the  display  of  liis  genius,  for  the 
patriotic  party  had  lost  its  leader,  and  there  was  no  one 
to  assert  its  principles  with  effect.  Grattan  cannot 
with  any  justice  be  accused  of  having  supplanted 
Flood.  lie  simply  occupied  the  position  which  wag 
vacant,  and  which  liis  extraordinary  eloquence  natu- 
rally gave  him.  Whatever  opinion  miglit  be  enter- 
tained among  his  hearers  of  the  w^isdom  of  his  political 
views,  or  of  his  judgment,  tliere  could  be  no  question 
that  he  was  from  the  very  commencement  of  his 
career  by  far  the  greatest  orator  of  the  day.  Wlien, 
therefore,  the  party  found  themselves  deserted  by 
their  old  leader,  tliey  naturally  rallied  around  tlic 
one  man  whose  alnlities  were  sufficient  to  supply  liis 
place. 

The  eloquence  of  Grattan,  in  his  best  days,  was  in 
some  respects  perhaps  the  finest  that  has  been  heard 
in  either  country  since  the  time  of  Chatham.  Con- 
sidered simply  as  a  debater,  he  was  certainly  inferior 
to  both  Fox  and  Pitt,  and  perhaps  to  Sheridan ;  but 
lie  combined  two  of  the  very  highest  qualities  of  a  great 
orator  to  a  degree  that  was  almost  unexampled.  No 
British  orator  except  Chatham  had  an  equal  power  of 
firing  an  educated  audience  -with  an  intense  enthu- 
siasm, or  of  animating  and  inspiring  a  nation.     No 


HIS   ELOQUENCE.  109 

British  orator  except  Burke  had  an  equal  power  of 
sowino^  his  speeches  with  profound  aphorisms  and 
associating  transient  questions  with  eternal  truths.  His 
thoughts  naturally  crystallised  into  epigrams  ;  his 
arguments  were  condensed  with  such  admirable  force 
and  clearness  that  they  assumed  almost  the  appear- 
ance of  axioms ;  and  they  were  often  interspersed  with 
sentences  of  concentrated  poetic  beauty,  which  flashed 
upon  the  audience  with  all  the  force  of  sudden  inspir- 
ation, and  which  were  long  remembered  and  repeated. 
Some  of  his  best  speeches  combined  much  of  the  value 
of  philosophical  dissertations  with  ail  the  charm  of  the 
most  brilliant  declamation.  I  know,  indeed,  none  in 
modern  times,  except  those  of  Burke,  from  which  the 
student  of  politics  can  derive  so  many  profound  and 
valuable  maxims  of  political  wisdom,  and  none  which 
are  more  useful  to  those  who  seek  to  master  that  art  of 
condensed  energy  of  expression  in  which  he  almost 
equalled  Tacitus.  His  eloquence  had  nothing  of  the 
harmonious  and  unembarrassed  flow  of  Pitt  or  of 
Plunket ;  and  he  had  no  advantages  of  person  and  no 
grace  and  dignity  of  gesture;  butliis  strange, writhing 
contortions,  and  the  great  apparent  effort  lie  often  dis- 
played, added  an  effect  of  surprise  to  the  sudden  gleams 
of  luminous  argument — to  tlie  severe  and  concentrated 
declamation — to  the  terseness  of  statement  and  tJie 
exf[uisite  felicities  of  expression  with  which  he  adorned 
every  discussion.  O'Connell,  comparing  him  to  Pitt, 
said  that  he  wanted  the  sustained  dignity  of  tliat 
speaker,  but  that  Pitt's  speeclies  were  always  speedily 
forgotten,  while  G rattan  was  constantly  saying  things 
that  were  remembered.  I  [is  speeches  show  no  wit  and 
no  skill  in  the  lighter  forms  of  sarcasm  ;  but  he  was 
almost  unrivalled  in  crushing  invective,  in  delinea- 
tions of  character,  and  in  brief,  keen  arguments.     In 


110  HENIIT   G RATTAN. 

carrying  on  a  train  of  sustained  reasoning  he  was  not  so 
happy.  Flood  is  said  to  have  been  liis  superior  ;  and 
none  of  liis  speeches  in  this  respect  are  comparable  to 
tliat  c»f  Fox  on  the  Westminster  scrutiny. 

The  extraordinary  excellence  of  his  speaking  con- 
sisted much  more  in  its  wonderful  positive  merits  than 
in  its  purity  or  freedom  from  defects.  There  was  no 
conscious  atfectation  in  liis  nature,  but  he  had  an 
intense  mannerism,  which  appeared  equally  in  his 
speaking  and  in  his  private  life — in  almost  everything 
he  said  or  wrote.  He  rarely  said  simple  things  in 
a  simple  way;  and  the  quaint  peculiarities  of  his 
diction  appeared  as  strongly  in  his  conversation  and 
in  his  unstudied  replies  as  in  his  elaborate  orations. 
His  compositions  were  almost  always  overloaded  wdth 
epigram  and  antithesis,  and  his  metaphors  were  often 
forced,  sometimes  confused  and  inaccurate,  and  occa- 
sionally even  absurd.  But  with  all  these  defects  very 
few  speakers  of  any  age  or  country  have  equalled  him 
in  originality,  in  fire,  and  in  persuasive  force.  In  one 
respect  he  would  probably  have  had  more  influence  in 
our  day  than  in  his  own,  for  the  reporter's  pen  would 
have  concealed  most  of  his  defects  and  magnified  most 
of  his  merits.  The  political  orator  now  speaks  less  to 
those  who  are  assembled  within  the  walls  of  Parliament 
than  to  the  public  outside.  The  charm  of  manner,  the 
music  of  the  modulated  tone,  have  lost  their  old  supre- 
macy, while  the  power  of  condensed  and  vivid  expression 
has  acquired  an  increased  value.  He  who  can  furnish  t  he 
watchwords  of  party,  the  epigrams  of  debate,  will  now 
exercise  the  greatest  and  most  abiding  influence.  A 
Imndred  pens  Avill  reproduce  his  words,  nnd  they  will 
l.)e  repeated  as  proverbs  when  the  most  ])rilliant  dis- 
plaj^s  of  difTusive  rhetoric  are  forgotten. 

Much  of   the    great   influence    of  the    speaking  of 


MAINTAINS   THE   INDEPENDENCE   OF    TAIILIAMENT.       Ill 

G  rattan  was  undoubtedly  due  to  moral  causes.     There 
was  a  certain  transparent  simplicity  and  rectitude  of 
purpose,  a  manifest  disinterestedness,  a  fervid  enthu- 
siasm   of  patriotism   in   his   character,    which   added 
greatly  to  the  effect  of  his  eloquence,  and  gave  him  an 
ascendency  that  was  exercised  by  none  of  his  contem- 
poraries in  Ireland.  In  purely  intellectual  endowments 
he  was  probably  equalled  by  Plunket ;  but  Plunket 
never   exercised   even   a   perceptible    influence   upon 
public  opinion,  while  Grattan  in  a  gi'eat  degree  formed 
the  character  of  the  nation.    From  the  very  begmnmg 
of  his  career  his  eloquence  became  the  great  vivifying 
principle  in.  the  patriotic  party,  and  every  question 
received  a  new  impulse  from  liis  advocacy. 

I  liave  already  enumerated  the  principal  objects  of 
the  party  with   which    Grattan   was   connected.     He 
assisted  Burgh  and  Flood  in  carrying  the  free-trade 
question   to    a   triumphant   issue,      lie    endeavoured, 
thouo-h  unsuccessfully,  to  place  the  Irish  army  under 
the    control   of  the  Parliament ;    and,  above   all,  he 
o-ave  an  unprecedented  impulse  to  the  great  cause  of 
parliamentary  independence.     In  April  1780  he  moved 
'  that  no  person  on  earth,  save  the  King,  Lords,  and 
Commons  of  Ireland,  lias  a  right  to  make   laws  for 
Irelmd  '     This  motion  he  introduced  with  a  speech  ot 
splendid  eloquence,  and  the  effect  produced  by  it  was 
very   oreat.     Flood,  however,  perceived   that   it  was 
somewliat  premature  and  would  have  been  defeated, 
and  at  his  suggestion  it  was  withdrawn.     This  debate 
liad  a  considerable  effect  in   eliciting  the  feelings  of 
the  people,  and  the  sentiments  of  the  Parliament  are 
sufficiently  shown  by  the  letters  of  Lord  Buckntngham 
^•ho  was  then  Viceroy,  to  tlie  Government  m  England. 
'It  is  with  the  utmost  concern,'  he  wrote,  '  I  must  ac- 
quaint your  lordship  that  although  so  many  gentlemen 


112  nEXRT   GRATTAN. 

expressed  their  concern  that  the  subject  had  been  in- 
troduced, the  sense  of  the  House  against  the  obliga- 
tion of  any  statutes  of  the  Parliament  of  Great  Britain 
within  this  kingdom  is  represented  to  me  to  have  been 
almost  unanimous.'  Shortly  after  this  debate  the 
Volunteer  Convention  assembled  at  Dungannon  to 
throw  their  influence  into  the  scale.  Grattan,  in 
co-operation  with  Flood  and  Charlemont,  drew  up  a 
series  of  resolutions,  which  were  adopted  unanimously, 
asserting  the  Irish  independence ;  and  Grattan,  alone, 
drew  up  another  resolution  expressing  the  gratification 
with  which  the  Volunteers  had  witnessed  the  relaxation 
of  tlie  penal  code.  It  is  scarcely  possible  to  exaggerate 
the  importance  of  this  last  resolution.  It  marked  the 
solemn  union  between  the  two  gTeat  sections  of  Irish- 
men for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  the  recognition  of 
tlieir  country's  rights.  It  showed  that  the  old  policy 
of  governing  Ireland  by  the  division  of  her  sects  had 
failed  ;  and  tliat  if  the  independence  of  Parliament 
were  to  be  withheld,  it  must  bo  withheld  in  opposition 
to  a  nation  united  and  in  arms. 

The  Government  at  length  yielded.  Tlie  Duke  of 
Portland  was  sent  over  as  Lord-Lieutenant,  with  per- 
mission to  concede  the  required  boon.  At  the  last 
moment  an  etfort  was  made  to  procure  a  delay,  but 
Grattan  refused  to  grant  it ;  and  on  the  IGtli  of  April 
1782,  amid  an  outburst  of  almost  un^iaralleled  enthu- 
siasm, the  declaration  of  independence  was  brought 
forward.  On  that  day  a  large  body  of  the  Volunteers 
were  drawn  up, in  front  of  the  old  Parliament  House  of 
Ireland.  Far  as  the  03^0  could  stretch  the  morning 
eun  glanced  upon  their  weapons  and  upon  their  flags ; 
and  it  was  through  their  parted  ranks  that  Grattan 
passed  to  move  the  emancipation  of  his  country.  Never 
had  a  great  orator  a  nobler  or  a  more  j^leasiug  task.  It 


DECLARATION   OF   INDEPENDENCE.  113 

was  to  proclaim  that  the  strife  of  six  centuries  had 
terminated ;  that  the  cause  for  which  so  much  blood 
had  been  shed,  and  so  much  genius  expended  in  vain, 
had  at  last  triumphed ;  and  that  a  new  era  had 
dawned  upon  Ireland.  Doubtless  on  that  day  many 
minds  reverted  to  the  long  night  of  oppression  and 
crime  through  which  Ireland  had  struggled  towards 
that  conception  which  had  been  as  the  pillar  of  fire  on 
her  path.  But  now  at  last  the  promised  land  seemed 
reached.  The  dream  of  Swift  and  of  Molyneux  was 
realised.  The  blessings  of  independence  were  recon- 
ciled with  the  blessings  of  connection  ;  and  in  an 
emancipated  Parliament  the  patriot  saw  the  guarantee 
of  the  future  prosperity  of  his  country  and  the  Shekinal) 
of  liberty  in  tlie  land.  It  was  impossible  indeed  not 
to  perceive  that  tliere  was  still  much  to  be  done — 
disqualifications  to  be  removed,  anomalies  to  be  recti- 
fied, corruption  to  be  overcome ;  but  Grattan  at  least 
firmly  believed  that  Ireland  possessed  the  vital  force 
necessary  for  all  this,  that  tlie  progress  of  a  healtliy 
public  opinion  would  regenerate  and  reform  the  Irish 
Parliament  as  it  regenerated  and  reformed  the  I*ar- 
liament  of  England ;  and  that  every  year  the  sense 
of  independence  would  quicken  the  sympathy  between 
the  people  and  their  representatives.  It  was  indeed 
a  noble  triumph,  and  the  orator  was  worthy  of  tlie 
cause.  In  a  few  glowing  sentences  he  painted  the 
dreary  struggle  that  had  passed,  the  magnitude  of 
the  victory  that  had  been  achieved,  and  the  grandeur 
of  the  prospects  that  were  unfolding.  'I  am  now,* 
he  exclaimed,  '  to  address  a  free  people.  Ages  hav(i 
passed  away,  and  this  is  the  first  moment  in  whicli 
you  could  be  distinguished  by  that  appellation.  I  have 
spoken  on  the  subject  of  your  liberty  so  often  that  I 
have  nothing  to  add,  and  have  only  to  admire  by  what 


114  HENRY    G RATTAN. 

heaven-directed  steps  you  have  proceeded  until  the 
whole  faculty  of  the  nation  is  braced  up  to  the  act  of 
her  own  deliverance.  I  found  Ireland  on  her  knees  ;  I 
watched  over  her  w^ith  a  paternal  solicitude  ;  I  have 
traced  lier  progress  from  injuries  to  arms,  and  from  arms 
to  liberty.  Spirit  of  Swift,  spirit  of  IMolyneux,  your 
genius  has  prevailed  I  Ireland  is  now  a  nation.  In 
that  character  I  hail  her,  and,  bowing  in  her  august 
presence,  I  say  esto  perpetua  /' 

The  concession  was  made,  on  the  whole,  with  no  un- 
grudging hand,  and  in  a  few  years  most  of  the  badges 
of  subserviency  whicli  the  Irish  Protestants  had  worn 
w^re  discarded.  Between  1778  and  1782  the  com- 
mercial restrictions  were  almost  all  abolished ;  the 
judges  were  made  immovable  ;  the  duration  of  Parlia- 
ment w^as  limited ;  the  army  was  placed  in  subordi- 
nation to  the  Parliament;  the  appellate  jurisdiction 
of  the  House  of  Lords,  which  had  been  destroyed  in 
1719,  was  restored,  and  the  independence  of  the  Irish 
Legislature  was  recognised.  Immediately  after  the  con- 
cession of  independence  a  day  of  thanksgiving  was 
appointed  to  consecrate  the  triumph,  and  a  vote  for 
the  support  of  twenty  thousand  sailors  for  the  English 
navy  was  agreed  upon.  This  last  was  almost  the  first 
measure  of  the  emancipated  Parliament.  In  this,  as 
in  every  other  period  of  his  career,  Grattan  was  anxious 
to  show  in  the  most  unequivocal  manner  the  sympathy 
of  Ireland  with  England,  and  the  compatibility  of  an 
ardent  love  of  independence  with  a  devoted  attachment 
to  the  connection.  He  said  himself,  '  I  am  desirous 
above  all  things,  next  to  the  liberty  of  the  country,  not 
to  accustom  the  Irish  mind  to  an  alien  or  suspicious 
habit  with  regard  to  Great  Britain.' 

Wliile  the  gi-eatest  Irishmen  in  Ireland  were  thus 
working  out  the  freedom  of  their  country,  the  greatest 


COKTROYERSY  WITH  FLOOD.  115 

Irislimnii  in  England  wrote  to  encourage  them  and  to 
exprcs  liis  approval  of  the  work.     'I  am  convinced, 
wrote  ]5urke  to  Lord  Charlemont,  Uhat  no  reluctant 
tie  can  be  a  strong  one,  and  that  a  natural,  cheerful 
alliance,  will  be  a  far  more  secure  link  of  connection 
Mian  any  principle  of  subordination  borne  with  grudg- 
in-  and  discontent.'     The  Whig  party,  who  were  for  a 
brLf  period  in  power,  appear  to  have  concmTed  m 
this  view;  and  Fox,  in  one  of  his  speeches  m  1/97, 
expressed  it  very  unequivocally.     'I  would  have  the 
Irish  crovcrnment,'  he  said,  '  regulated  by  Irish  notions 
pnd    Irish  prejudices,  and    I  am  convinced   tliat  the 
more  she  is  under  Irish  government  the  more  she  will 
],c  bound  to  English  interests.' » 

The  Parliament  at  this  time  determined  to  mark  its 
recoo-nition  of  the  services  of  Grattan  by  a  grant  of 
100  W.  Grattan,  however,  refused  to  receive  so 
laro^  a  sum,  and  was  witli  some  difficulty  induced  to 
•iccvpt  luilf.  This  grant  enabled  him  to  devote  himself 
rvclu.ivelv  t3  the  service  of  the  country  without 
i>ractisin.-at  the  Bar,  to  which  he  had  been  called. 

I  need'not  revert  at  length  to  the  question  of  Simple 
Repeal,  which  I  have  already  so  fully  considered.    The 
aro-uments  on  each  side  of  that  controversy  must  be 
admitted  to  have  been  very  nicely  balanced,  and  the 
authorities   were    also   very  evenly  divided.     Grattan 
reckoned  among  the  supporters  of  his  view  Charlemont, 
Fox,  the   Irish   chief  justices   and   chief  baron,  and 
several  other  Irish  legal  authorities.    He  had,  however, 
injured  his  cause  greatly  by  bringing  forward  a  resolu- 
tion declaring  that  all  who  asserted  that  England  had 
authority  over  Ireland  were  enemies  to  the  country— a 
resolution  which  was  wholly  indefensible,  which  Flood 
most  triumphantly  assailed,  and  which,  after  a  short 

'  Quoted  by  Lord  J.  Russell  in  1S37.     Sec  Ann.  Reg.  1S37,  p.  31. 


116  HENRY   G  RATTAN. 

discussion,  was  witlidrawn.  He  was  also,  as  it  appears 
to  me,  guilty  of  a  grave  error  in  not  urging  at  this 
time  more  vehemently  the  question  of  Parliamentary 
Reform.  After  their  famous  conflict,  the  two  rivals 
co-operated  successfully  in  opposing  some  commercial 
arrangements  known  as  Orde's  Propositions,  which 
were  brought  forward  in  1785,  and  which,  by  denying 
the  Irish  Parliament  the  right  of  initiation  on  com- 
mercial matters,  trenched  upon  the  independence  of 
Ireland. 

In  December  1783  Pitt's  Ministry  began.  It  appears, 
from  one  of  the  letters  of  Pitt,  that  at  the  beginning 
of  his  career  he  contemplated  reforming  the  Irish  as 
well  as  the  English  Parliament ;  but  in  this,  as  in 
nearly  every  portion  of  liis  policy,  he  speedily  apostatised 
to  the  views  of  the  Tory  party,  who  had  brought  him 
into  power,  and  resisted  every  remedial  measure  which 
was  likely  to  prove  in  the  least  embarrassing  or  danger- 
ous to  his  Ministry.  During  many  years  of  the  Ministry 
of  Pitt  which  preceded  the  Union,  the  Irish  adminis- 
tration almost  uniformly  opposed  every  effort  to  reform 
tlie  Parliament.  One  of  the  greatest  causes  of  com- 
plaint was  the  Pension  List.  The  enormity  of  the 
grievance  is  sufficiently  shown  by  the  fact  that  the 
money  spent  in  pensions  in  Ireland  was  not  merely 
relatively,  but  absolutely,  greater  than  was  expended 
for  that  purpose  in  England ;  that  the  pension  list 
trebled  in  the  first  thirty  years  of  George  III.  ;  and 
that  in  1793  it  amounted  to  no  less  than  124,000/. 
liepeated  efforts  were  made  to  reduce  tliis  list,  which 
was  so  detrimental  to  the  disordered  finances  of  the 
country,  and  so  fatal  to  the  purity  of  Parliament. 
Grattan  brought  forward  the  subject  in  1785  and  in 
1791,  but  on  both  occasions  Government  threw  their 
influence  into  the  opposite  scale,  and  he  was  ccfeated. 


imsn   ECCLESIASTICAL   HISTOHT.  117 

In  1789  Grattan  disagreed  with  Titt's  Ministry  on  the 
Kegency  question,  and  maintained  with  Fox  that  the 
madness  of  the  King  was  to  be  regarded  as  tantamount 
to  his  death,  and  that  while  it  lasted  his  son  rightfully 
possessed  the  full  powers  of  royalty.  The  Irish  Parlia- 
ment adopted  this  View,  and  there  was  some  danger  of 
a  serious  collision  with  England,  when  the  recovery  of 
the  Kin<r  solved  the  difficulty.  But  the  great  question 
which  at  this  time  agitated  the  public  mind  was  the 
position  of  the  Eoman  Catholics— a  question  which 
has  long  been  the  most  fertile  cause  of  dissension  and 
controversy  in  Ireland.  ,    .    -  •     i 

There  are  few  more  curious  pages  in  ecclesiastical 
history  than  that  which  records  the  various  phases  of 
(.niristianity  in  Ireland.     Its  first  introduction  is  lost 
in  the  obscurity  of  antiquity,  but  we  find  it  existing, 
thouo-h  in  a  very  feeble  condition,  in  the  middle  of  the 
fifth°century,  when  Palladius  and  St.  Patrick  came 
over  to  re-animate  it.     Palladius  was  sent  from  Rome 
by   Pope   Celestine ;    his   mission    was   wholly  unsuc- 
cessful, and  he  very  soon  left  Ireland.     From  what 
quarter  St.  Patrick  derived  his  authority  is  a  question 
which  is  still  fiercely  debated  between  the  members  of 
the  rival  creeds.    It  seems  plain  that  under  his  auspices 
Christianity  spread  over  the  entire   island ;  that  the 
Cluirch  continued  for  several  centuries  in  a  flourishing 
condition  :  that  it  existed  very  independently  of  Rome ; 
and  that  in  the  famous  Easter  controversy  it  warmly 
upheld  the  Oriental  opinion.  ,    r      4-1, 

The  Irish  monasteries  soon  became  famed  for  the 
piety  and  the  learning  that  emanated  from  them,  and 
many  pilgrims  from  many  lands  sought  instruction 
within  their  walls.  Amongst  others,  Oswald,  the  son 
of  the  King  of  Northumbria,  was  educated  and  con- 
vorted  to  Christianity  by  the  Irish  monks ;  and,  when 


118  IIENLY    CrwVTTxVN. 

he  came  to  the  throne,  he  invited  his  old  preceptors  to 
plant  a  mission  in  his  dominions,  and  established  the 
monastery  of  Lindisfarne.  It  was  the  rare  fortune  of 
the  monks  of  Lindisfarne  to  have  three  successive 
priors  who  were  so  stainless  in  their  character,  so 
winning  in  their  manners,  and  so  gentle  in  their 
controversies,  that  they  prepossessed  all  who  knew 
them  in  behalf  of  their  religion,  and  extorted  expres- 
sions of  the  warmest  admiration  even  from  an  historian  * 
who  was  an  opponent  of  tlieir  views.  Their  zeal  was 
equal  to  their  gentleness,  and  their  success  to  their 
deserts,  and  by  their  means  the  light  of  Christianity 
was  spread  over  nearly  the  whole  of  the  north  of 
England.  At  last,  however,  they  came  into  collision 
with  the  Roman  party  on  the  Easter  question ;  and 
the  genius  and  the  energy  of  AVilfrid,  the  Eoman 
champion,  having  gained  the  victory,  they  returned  to 
their  own  country.  In  Ireland  the  Pope  obtained  a 
certain  influence  amid  the  civil  wars  that  distracted  the 
land,  but  his  authority  was  never  generally  recognised 
till  the  English  invasion.  The  English  King,  having 
obtained  letters  from  two  successive  Pontiffs  conferring 
Ireland  upon  him,  on  account  of  its  separation  from  the 
See  of  Kome,  and  on  condition  of  tlie  payment  of  Peter's 
pence,  convened  a  council  at  Cashel,  which  formally  im- 
posed the  Roman  yoke  on  the  nation  from  which  Eng- 
land had  received  a  Christianity  separate  from  Rome. 

If  we  overleap  the  next  few  centuries,  we  find  that 
at  the  time  of  the  Reformation  Ireland  was  the  only 
northern  country  in  which  the  reformed  tenets  never 
made  way.  The  explanation  of  this  phenomenon  is 
beyond  all  question  to  be  found  in  the  policy  of  Eng- 
land. The  Irish  regarded  Protestantism  as  identified 
with  a  nation  which  was  the   object  of  their  deepest 

»  Ledo. 


rOLICT   OF   CROiT^ELL.  119 

abhorrence.  Elizabeth,  who  was  its  great  representa- 
tive, had  spread  desolation  and  disaster  over  the  greater 
part  of  their  land.  She  had  shown  herself  anxious  to 
propagate  the  Reformed  faith,  but  still  more  anxious 
to  eradicate  the  nationality  of  Ireland.  To  effect  the 
former  object  she  enjoined  that  the  Anglican  service 
should  everywhere  be  celebrated ;  to  effect>  the  latter 
she  forbade  its  being  celebrated  in  the  Irish  tongue. 
Where  the  people  could  not  understand  English,  it  was 
gravely  ordered  that  the  service  might  be  translated 
into  Latin.  The  consequence  was  what  might  have 
been  anticipated.  The  people  continued  in  their  old 
faith,  and  England  was  tluis  the  means  of  consolidating 
and  perpetuating  that  religion  which  has  ever  proved 
the  most  insuperable  obstacle  to  her  policy. 

The  next  great  representative  of  Protestantism  in 
England  was  Cromwell,  whose  Irish  policy  is  well 
known.  An  illustrious  living  writer  has  discovered  a 
transcendent,  and  even  religious,  grandeur  in  the  mas- 
sacres of  Drogheda  and  of  Wexford,  but  it  must  be 
admitted  that  they  were  not  calculated  to  prepossess 
the  Irish  mind  in  favour  of  Protestantism.  We  may 
observe,  too,  that  the  Puritans  acted  throughout  as 
religionists.  Every  soldier  was  an  ardent  theologian, 
and  never  more  so  than  when,  with  a  text  from  Joshua 
in  his  mouth,  he  was  hewing  the  misbeliever  to  the 
ground.  The  war  of  races  and  the  recollection  of  the 
Irish  massacre  seem  to  have  all  given  w^ay  to  the  fierce 
hatred  of  the  Man  of  Sin,  that  had  steeled  every  heart 
and  whetted  every  sword.  Had  Cromwell's  policy  been 
persisted  in  for  a  few  generations,  Catholicism  in 
Ireland  might  have  perished  in  blood ;  but,  as  it  was, 
it  only  deepened  the  chasm  between  the  two  religions, 
and  inspired  the  Eoman  Catholics  with  a  still  more 
intense  hatred  of  the  dominant  creed. 


120  HENRY   G RATTAN. 

The  last  great  Protestant  ruler  of  England  was  Wil- 
liam III.,  who  is  identified  in  Ireland  with  the  humi- 
liation of  the  Boyne,  with  the  destruction  of  Irish 
trade,  and  with  the  broken  treaty  of  Limerick.     The 
ceaseless    exertions   of   the   extreme   Protestant   party 
have  made  him  more  odious  in  the  eyes  of  the  people 
than  he  deserves  to  be ;  for  he  was  personally  far  more 
tolerant  than  the  great  majority  of  his  contemporaries, 
and  the  penal  code  was  chiefly  enacted  under  his  suc- 
cessors.    It  required,   indeed,  four    or  five  reigns   to 
elaborate   a  system    so    ingeniously  contrived   to    de- 
moralise, to  degrade,  and  to  impoverish  the  people  of 
Ireland.    By  tliis  code  the  Koman  Catholics  were  abso- 
lutely excluded  from  the  Parliament,  from  the  magis- 
tracy, from  the  corporations,  from  the  bench,  and  from 
the  bar.     They  could  not  vote  at  parliamentary  elec- 
tions or  at  vestries.     They  could  not  act  as  constables, 
or  sheriffs,  or  jurymen,  or  serve  in  the  army  or  navy, 
or  become  solicitors,  or  even   hold   the   positions  of 
gamekeeper  or  watchman.     Schools  were  established 
to  bring  up  their  children  as  Protestants  ;  and  if  they 
refused  to  avail  themselves  of  these,  they  were  deli- 
berately consigned  to  hopeless  ignorance,  being  ex- 
cluded from  tlie  University,  and  debarred,  under  crush- 
ing penalties,  from  acting  as  schoolmasters,  as  ushers, 
or  as  private  tutors,  or  from  sending  their  cliildren 
abroad  to  obtain  the  instruction  they  were  refused  at 
home.     They  could  not  marry  Protestants  ;  and  if  such 
a  marriage  w^ere  celebrated  it  was  annulled  by  law,  and 
the  priest  who  officiated  might  be  hung.     They  could 
not  buy  land,  or  inherit  or  receive  it  as  a  gift  from 
Protestants,  or  hold  life  annuities,  or  leases  for  more 
than  thirty-one  years,  or  any  lease  on  such  terms  that 
the  profits  of  the  land  exceeded  one-third  of  the  rent. 
If  any  Catholic  leaseholder  by  his  industry  so  increased 


THE    TENAL    LAWS.  121 

Ins  profits  that  they  exceeded  this  proportion,  and  did 
not  immediately  make  a  corresponding  increase  in  his 
payments,  any  Protestant  who  gave  the  information 
could  enter  into  possession  of  liis  farm.  If  any  Catholic 
liad  secretly  purchased  either  his  old  forfeited  estate, 
or  any  other  land,  any  Protestant  who  informed  against 
him  might  hecome  the  proprietor.  The  few  Catholic 
landholders  w^ho  remained  were  deprived  of  the  right 
which  all  other  classes  possessed  of  bequeathing  their 
lands  as  tliey  pleased.  If  tlieir  sons  continued  Catho- 
lics, it  was  divided  equally  between  them.  If,  how- 
ever, the  eldest  son  consented  to  apostatise,  tlie  estate 
was  settled  upon  him,  the  father  from  that  hour  be- 
came only  a  life  tenant,  and  lost  all  power  of  selling, 
mortgaging,  or  otherw^ise  disposing  of  it.  If  the  wife 
of  a  Catholic  abandoned  the  religion  of  her  husband, 
she  w^as  immediately  free  from  his  control,  and  the 
Chancellor  was  empowered  to  assign  to  lier  a  certain 
proportion  of  her  husband's  property.  If  any  child, 
however  young,  professed  itself  a  Protestant,  it  was 
at  once  taken  from  the  father's  care,  and  the  Chan- 
cellor could  oblige  the  father  to  declare  upon  oath  the 
value  of  his  property,  both  real  and  personal,  and  could 
assign  for  the  present  maintenance  and  future  portion 
of  the  converted  child  such  proportion  of  that  pro- 
perty as  the  court  miglit  decree.  No  Catholic  could  be 
guardian  either  to  his  own  children  or  to  those  of 
another  person :  and  therefore  a  Catholic  who  died 
while  his  children  were  minors  had  the  bitterness  of 
reflecting  upon  his  death-bed  that  they  must  pass  into 
the  care  of  Protestants.  An  annuity  of  from  twenty 
to  forty  pounds  was  provided  as  a  bribe  for  every 
I^riest  who  would  become  a  Protestant.  To  convert 
a  Protestant  to  Catholicism  was  a  capital  offence. 
In  every  walk  of  life  the  Catholic  was  pursued  by 
7 


122  HENRY    G RATTAN. 

persecution  or  restriction.  Except  in  the  linen  trade, 
be  could  not  have  more  than  two  apprentices.  He 
could  not  possess  a  horse  of  the  value  of  more  than  five 
pounds,  and  any  Protestant,  on  giving  him  five  pounds, 
could  take  his  horse.  He  was  compelled  to  pay  double 
to  the  militia.  He  was  forbidden,  except  imder  parti- 
cular conditions,  to  live  in  Galway  or  Limerick.  In 
case  of  war  with  a  Catholic  power,  the  Catholics  were 
obliged  to  reimburse  the  damage  done  by  the  enemy's 
privateers.  Tlie  Legislature,  it  is  true,  did  not  venture 
absolutely  to  suppress  their  worship,  but  it  existed 
only  by  a  doubtful  connivance, — stigmatised  as  if  it 
were  a  species  of  licensed  prostitution,  and  subject  to 
conditions  which,  if  they  had  been  enforced,  would 
have  rendered  its  continuance  impossible.  An  old  law 
which  prohibited  it,  and  another  which  enjoined  atten- 
dance at  the  Anglican  worship,  remained  unrepealed, 
and  might  at  any  time  be  revived;  and  the  former 
was,  in  fact,  enforced  during  the  Scotch  rebellion  of 
1715.  The  parish  priests,  who  alone  were  allowed  to 
officiate,  were  compelled  to  be  registered,  and  were 
forbidden  to  keep  curates,  or  to  officiate  anywhere  ex- 
cept in  their  own  parishes.  The  chapels  might  not 
have  bells  or  steeples.  No  crosses  might  be  publicly 
erected.  Pilgrimages  to  the  holy  wells  were  forbidden. 
Not  only  all  monks  and  friars,  but  also  all  Catholic  arch- 
bishops, bishops,  deacons,  and  other  dignitaries,  were 
ordered  by  a  certain  day  to  leave  the  country;  and  if 
after  that  date  they  were  found  in  Ireland  they  were 
liable  to  be  first  imprisoned  and  then  banished ;  and 
if  after  that  banishment  they  returned  to  discharge 
their  duty  in  their  dioceses,  they  were  liable  to  the 
punishment  of  death.  To  facilitate  the  discovery  of 
offences  against  the  code,  two  justices  of  the  peace 
might  at  any  time  compel  any  Catholic  of  eighteen 


THE   TENAL   LAWS.  123 

years  of  age  to  declare  when  and  where  lie  last  heard 
mass,  what  persons  were  present,  and  who  officiated ; 
and  if  he  refused  to  give  evidence  they  might  imprison 
him  for  twelve  months,  or  until  he  paid  a  fine  of 
twenty  pounds.  Anyone  who  harboured  ecclesiastics 
from  beyond  the  seas  was  subject  to  fines  which  for 
the  third  offence  amounted  to  the  confiscation  of  all 
his  goods.  A  graduated  scale  of  rewards  was  offered 
for  the  discovery  of  Catholic  bishops,  priests,  and 
schoolmasters ;  and  a  resolution  of  the  House  of  Com- 
mons pronounced  '  the  prosecuting  and  informing 
against  Papists'  'an  honourable  service  to  the  Govern- 
ment.' 

Such  were  tlie  principal  articles  of  this  famous  code 
— a  code  which  Burke  tridy  described  as  '  w^cll  digested 
and  well  disposed  in 'all  its  parts;  a  machine  of  wise 
and  elaborate  contrivance,  and  as  well  fitted  for  the 
oppression,  impoverishment,  and  degradation  of  a 
people,  and  tlK3^ebasement  in  them  of  human  nature 
itself,  as  ever  proceeded  from  the  perverted  ingenuity 
of  man.'  It  was  framed  by  a  small  minority  of  the 
nation  for  the  oppression  of  tlic  majority  who  remained 
faithful  to  tlie  religion  of  their  fathers.  It  w^as  framed 
by  men  who  boasted  that  their  creed  rested  upon  pri- 
vate judgment,  and  whose  descendants  are  never  weary 
of  declaiming  upon  tlie  intolerance  of  Popery ;  and  it 
was  directed,  in  many  of  its  provisions,  against  men; 
religious  observances;  and  w^as  in  all  its  parts  so  strictly 
a  code  of  religious  persecution,  that  any  Catholic 
might  be  exempted  from  its  operation  by  simply  for- 
saking his  religion.  It  was  framed  and  enforced, 
although  by  the  Treaty  of  Limerick  the  Catholics  had 
been  guaranteed  such  privileges  in  the  exercise  of  their 
religion  as  they  enjoyed  in  the  reign  of  Charles  II.. 
although  the  Sovereign  at  the  same  time  promised,  118 


124  IIENEY    G RATTAN. 

soon  as  liis  affairs  ^Yould  permit,  '  to  summon  a  Parlia- 
ment in  this  kingdom,  and  to  endeavour  to  procure 
the  said  Roman  Catholics  such  further  security  in  that 
particular  iis  may  preserve  them  from  any  disturbance 
on  account  of  their  religion,'  although  not  a  single 
overt  act  of  treason  "was  proved  against  them,  and 
although  they  remained  passive  spectators  of  two  rebel- 
lions which  menaced  the  very  existence  of  the  Protes- 
tant dynasty  in  England. 

It  is  impossible  for  any  Irish  Protestant,  whose  mind 
is  not  wholly  perverted  by  religious  bigotry,  to  look 
back  w^ithout  shame  and  indignation  to  the  penal  code. 
The  annals  of  persecution  contain  many  more  sangui- 
nary pages.  They  contain  no  instance  of  a  series  of 
laws  more  deliberately  and  ingeniously  framed  to  debase 
their  victims,  to  bribe  them  in  every  stage  of  their 
life  to  abandon  their  convictions,  and  to  sow  dissension 
and  distrust  within  the  family  circle.  That  the  Irish 
Parliament,  in  tlie  last  years  of  William,  and  in  the 
reigns  of  his  two  successors,  was  one  of  the  most  perse- 
outino:  lei2:islative  assemblies  that  liavc  ever  sat,  cannot 
reasonably  be  questioned.  Put,  witliout  descending  to 
tlie  moral  sopliistry  wliich  some  writers  have  employed 
in  endeavouring  to  palliate  these  laws,  tliere  is  some- 
thing that  may  be  truly  said  for  tlie  Irish  Protestants. 
The  laws  wliich  had  been  passed  in  England  and  by 
the  English  Parliament  imder  "William,  for  the  oppres- 
sion of  Catliolics,  were  on  the  whole  even  more  stringent 
than  those  w^hich  were  subsequently  passed  in  Ireland, 
and  some  of  the  worst  Irish  Acts  w^ere  simply  tran- 
scripts of  English  laws.  Tlic  beginning  of  the  Irish 
penal  code  was  a  law  passed  in  1691  by  the  English 
Parliament  for  excluding  all  Catholics  from  the  Irish 
one.  The  Irish  Protestants  sometimes  surpassed  in 
bigotry  the  wishes  of  the  English  Cabinet,  but  yet  a 


THE    PENAL    LAWS.  125 

long  succession  of  Lord-Lieutenants,  speaking  as  the 
representatives  of  the  English  Government,  urged 
increased  severity  against  the  '  common  enemy,'  and 
among  these  Governors  we  find  such  men  as  Carteret 
and  Chesterfield.  The  spirit  in  which  Ireland  was 
systematically  governed  in  the  early  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century  was  well  illustrated  by  the  speech 
of  the  Lords  Justices  to  the  Parliament  in  1715,  in 
which  they  said,  '  AVe  must  recommend  to  you,  in  the 
present  conjuncture,  such  unanimity  in  your  resolu- 
tions as  may  once  more  put  an  end  to  all  other  dis- 
tinctions in  Ireland  than  that  of  Protestant  and  Papist.' 
The  time  when  the  Irish  Parliament  was  most  persecu- 
ting, and  the  Irish  Protestants  were  most  fanatical,  was 
the  time  when  the  first  was  absolutely  subservient  to 
foreign  control,  and  when  the  latter  considered  them- 
selves merely  as  a  garrison  in  an  enemy's  country.  No 
sooner  had  a  national  spirit  arisen  among  the  Protes- 
tants than  the  spirit  of  sectarianism  declined.  The 
penal  laws  were  never  for  any  considerable  time  en- 
forced in  their  full  severity,  and  some  parts  of  them 
— especially  those  restricting  the  Catholic  worship, 
banishing  bishops  and  friars,  and  prohibiting  Catholic 
schools — became  in  the  latter  and  the  greater  part  of 
their  existence  a  mere  dead  letter.  JNIuch  property 
that  would  otherwise  have  passed  to  Protestants  was 
retained  in  Catliolic  hands  by  legal  fictions  and  by  the 
assistance  or  with  the  connivance  of  Protestants,  and 
the  emancipated  Parliament  of  Ireland  carried  the 
policy  of  religious  liberty  much  farther  than  the 
Parliament  of  England. 

The  economical  and  moral  efifects  of  the  penal  laws 
were,  however,  profoundly  disastrous.  The  productive 
energies  of  the  nation  were  fatally  diminished.  Almost 
all    Catholics   of   energy   and   talent  who   refused   to 


12G  HENRY    GRATTAN. 

abandon  their  faith  emigrated  to  foreign  lands.  The 
relation  of  classes  was  permanently  vitiated  ;  for  almost 
all  the  proprietary  of  the  country  belonged  to  one 
religion,  while  the  great  majority  of  their  tenants  were 
of  another.  The  Catholics,  excluded  from  almost  every 
possibility  of  eminence,  deprived  of  their  natural 
leaders,  and  consigned  by  the  J^egislature  to  utter 
iofnorance.  soon  sank  into  the  condition  of  broken  and 
dispirited  helots.  A  total  absence  of  industrial  virtues, 
a  cowering  and  abject  deference  to  authority,  a  reck- 
lessness about  the  future,  a  love  of  secret  illegal  com- 
binations, became  general  among  them.  Above  all, 
they  learnt  to  regard  law  as  merely  tlie  expression  of 
force,  and  its  moral  weight  was  utterly  destroyed.  For 
the  greater  part  of  a  century  the  main  object  of  the 
Legislature  was  to  extirpate  a  religion  by  the  encourngc- 
mcnt  of  some  of  the  worst  and  the  punishment  of  some 
of  the  best  qualities  of  our  nature.  Its  rewards  were 
reserved  for  the  informer,  for  the  hypocrite,  for  the 
imdutiful  son,  or  for  the  faithless  wife.  Its  penalties 
were  directed  against  religious  constancy  and  the 
honest  discharge  of  ecclesiastical  duty. 

It  would,  indeed,  be  scarcely  possible  to  conceive  a 
more  infamous  system  of  legal  tyranny  than  that  which 
in  the  middle  of  the  eighteentli  century  crushed  every 
class  and  almost  every  interest  in  Ireland.  The  Par- 
liament had  been  deprived  of  every  vestige  of  inde- 
pendence. The  English  House  of  Lords,  by  an  act  of 
what  appears  to  have  been  pure  usurpation,  had  in 
1719  assumed  to  itself  the  right  of  final  judicature  i; 
Irish  cases,  and  deprived  the  Irisli  House  of  Lords  of 
all  judicial  powers.  The  English  Chancellor,  Lord 
Macclesfield,  had  laid  down  the  doctrine  that  'the 
English  Courts  of  Justice  have  a  superintendent  power 
over  those  of  Ireland,'  and  are  able  to  reverse  their 


D]:rKE.SSION    OF    ALL    CLASSES.  127 

sentences.     The  Irish  judges  might  at   any  time  he 
removed.    IManufacturiug  and  commercial  industry  had 
been  deliberately  crushed  for  the  benefit  of  English 
manufacturers,  and  the  couatry  was  reduced  to  such  a 
state  of  poverty  that   in  1779  the   Goverament   was 
compelled    to    borrow    50,0001.    from    England    and 
20,O00L  from  a  private  individual,  to  pay  its  troops. 
At  the  same  time  a  gigantic  and  ever-increasing  pension 
list  was  drawn  from  the  scanty  resources  of  the  nation, 
and  was  expended  partly  in  corrupting  its  representa- 
tives and  partly  in  rewarding  Englishmen  or  foreigners. 
The  mistresses  of  George  I.,  the   Queen  Dowager  of 
Prussia,  sister  of  George  II.,  the  Sardinian  ambassador 
who  negotiated  the  Peace  of  Paris,  were  all  on  tlic 
Irish  pension  lists.     The  most  honourable  and  most 
lucrative   positions   in   Ireland  were    chiefly  held  by 
Englishmen.     The  Lord-Lieutenant,  the  Chief  Secre- 
tary, and  most  of  the  other  foremost  political  officers, 
were  always  Englishmen.  ;i^During  the  whole  of  the 
eighteenth  century  there  was  not  a  single  instance  of 
an    Irishman    holding    the    office    of    Archbishop   of 
Armagli  ;  and  of  tlie  eighteen  Archbishops  of  Dublin 
and  Cashel,  ten  were  Englishmen,  as  were  also  nearly 
all   the    chancellors   and    a   large    proportion   of   the 
bishops  and  judges.     And,  while   even   the   favoured 
minority  of  the  Irish  people  were  thus  systematically 
depressed,  the  great  majority  were  deprived  of  all  poli- 
tical  privileges,  excluded   from   almost  all  means   of 
acquiring  v/eatJi,  reduced  by  law  into  a  pariah  clas?, 
and  exposed  to  demoralising  influences  which  even  to 
the  present  day  have  left  their  traces  upon  the  national 
character.  -^ 

There  can  be  no  question  that  in  the  higher  ranks 
of  Catholics  the  penal  laws  produced  a  large  amount  of 
formal  apostacy.     The  desire  of  tlie  Catholic  landloid 


128  HENRY   GRATTAN. 

to  keep  his  property  in  bis  family  was  often  strongei 
than  his  religious  feeling,  and  among  professional  men 
very  little  scruple  appears  to  have  been  felt.  In  a 
remarkable  letter  to  the  Duke  of  Newcastle,  written  in 
the  early  part  of  1727,  Primate  Boulter  complains 
that  '  the  practice  of  the  law  from  the  top  to  the 
bottom  is  at  present  mostly  in  the  hands  of  new  con- 
verts, who  give  no  farther  security  on  this  account  than 
producing  a  certificate  of  their  having  received  the 
Sacrament  in  the  Church  of  England  or  Ireland,  which 
several  of  those  who  were  Papists  obtain  on  the  road 
hither,  and  demand  to  be  admitted  hamster  in  virtue 
of  it  at  their  arrival ;  and  several  of  them  have  Popish 
wives,  and  mass  said  in  tlieir  houses,  and  breed  up 
their  children  Papists.  Things  are  at  present  so  bad 
with  us  that  if  about  six  should  be  removed  from  the 
tlie  Bar  to  the  Bench  here,  there  will  not  be  a  barrister 
of  note  left  that  is  not  a  convert.'  In  order  to  check 
this  state  of  things,  a  number  of  enactments  were  made 
to  compel  converts  to  educate  their  children  as  Protes- 
tants, and  to  subject  those  who  refused  and  those  who 
married  Papist  wives  to  the  same  disabilities  as  if  they 
had  not  professed  themselves  Protestants.  But  the 
movement  of  conversion  to  Protestantism  was  only  in 
the  upper  classes ;  and  it  is  a  singTilarly  curious  fact 
that  at  the  worst  period  of  tlie  penal  laws  poor  Protes- 
tants were  continually  lapsing  into  Catholicism,  while 
the  poor  Catholics  remained  steadfast  in  tneir  faith. 
Primate  Boulter,  to  check  the  movement,  founded  the 
charter  schools,  which  were  intended  to  be  the  only 
means  of  educating  the  Irish  poor,  and  which  were 
essentially  proselytising.  '  I  can  assure  you,'  he  writes 
to  the  Bishop  of  London,  'the  Papists  are  here  so 
numerous  that  it  highly  concerns  us  in  point  of  in- 
terest, as  well  as  out  of  concern  for  the  salvation  of 


THE    TENAL   LATVS.  129 

tliose  poor  <:reatures  wlio  are  our  fellow-subjects,  to  try 
all  possible  means  to  bring  them  and  tlieirs  over  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  true  religion ;  and  one  of  the 
most  likely  methods  we  can  think  of  is,  if  possible, 
instructing  and  converting  the  young  generation ;  for 
instead  of  converting  those  that  are  adult,  we  are  daily 
losing  several  of  our  meaner  people,  who   go  off  to 

Popery The  ignorance  and  obstinacy  of  the 

adult  Papists  is  such  th.at  there  is  not  much  hope  of 
converting  them.' 

The  history  of  the  penal  laws  should,  indeed,  furnish 
a  lasting  warning  to  persecutors  of  all  religions. 
Artliur  Young  asserts  that  the  numerical  proportion  of 
the  Eoman  Catholics  in  Ireland  w^as  not  even  dimi- 
nished, if  anything  the  reverse ;  and  that  it  w^as  ad- 
mitted, by  those  who  asserted  the  contrary,  that  it  would 
take  4,000  years,  according  to  the  then  rate  of  pro- 
gress, to  convert  them.  It  was  stated  in  Parliament 
tliat  only  4,055  had  conformed  in  71  y(?ars  under  the 
system  ;  and  what  little  the  religion  may  have  lost  in 
number  it  gained  in  intensity.  The  poorer  classes  in 
Ireland  emerged  from  tlieir  long  ordeal,  penetrated 
with  an  attachment  to  their  religion  almost  unpa- 
ralleled in  Europe.  With  the  exception  of  the  inha- 
bitants of  Bavaria  and  the  Tyrol,  there  is,  perhaps, 
no  nation  in  Europe  whose  character  has  been  so 
completely  moulded  and  permeated  by  it,  or  in  which 
sceptical  doubts  are  more  completely  unknown. 

Tlie  code  perished  at  last  by  its  own  atrocity.  It 
became  after  a  time  so  out  of  harmony  with  the  pre- 
vailing tone  of  Iri.sh  opinion  that  it  ceased  to  bo 
enforced,  and  tlie  Irish  Protestants  took  the  initiative 
in  obtaining  its  mitigation.  In  1768  a  J3ill  for  this 
purpose  passed  without  a  division  in  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment, but  was  lost  in  England.     In  1774,  1778,  1782, 


130  IIENRT    Cr.ATTAN. 

and  1792,  several  Relief  Bills  became  lav/.  By  these 
Acts  the  Roman  Catholics  were  admitted  to  most  of 
the  privileges  of  their  fellow-suhjects,  except  to  poli- 
tical power.  Tliey  still  laboured  imder  three  great 
disqualifications  :  they  could  not  possess  the  elective 
franchise,  they  could  not  sit  in  Parliament,  and  they 
could  not  nse  to  the  higlier  positions  in  the  legal  or 
the  military  professions.  Public  opinion  had  begun 
to  show  itself  in  their  favour.^  As  I  have  already 
noticed,  tlie  Volunteers,  who  were  at  first  exclusively 
Protestants,  and  who  were  recruited  chiefly  in  the 
North,  soon  admitted  Catholics  into  their  ranks,  and 
would  probably  have  gone  further  but  for  the  in- 
fluence of  Charlemont  and  Flood.  Burke  espoused 
tlieir  cause  warmly,  wrote  a  petition  for  them,  exerted 
all  his  eloquence  in  their  beiialf,  and  sent  over  his  son 
to  assist  them.  But  the  man  to  whom  they  owed 
the  most  was  imdoubtedly  Henry  G rattan.  He  was 
almost  tlie  onl}^  Irishman  of  note  in  Ireland  who 
at  tliat   time   ceaselessly  advocated  their   imqualified 

'  All  acute  observer,  Avri ting  in  1770,  thus  discribcd  the  religious 
.-■tiitc  of  Ireland  :  '  The  rif^our  of  Pupisli  bigotry  is  softening  very  fiist, 
tin-  rrotcstants  are  losing  all  biUcr  remembrance  of  tliose  evils  -wliich 
llieir  ancestors  suffered,  and  the  two  sects  arc  insensibly  gliding  into 
the  same  common  interests.  The  Protestants,  through  apprehensions 
from  the  superior  numbers  of  the  Catholics,  -svere  eager  to  secure  them- 
selves in  tlio  powerful  protcc;ion  of  an  Englisli  Minister,  and  to  gain 
this  wore  ready  to  comply  witli  his  most  exorbitant  demands;  the 
Catholics  were  alike  willing  to  embarrass  the  Protestants  as  their 
natural  foes  ;  but  awakening  from  this  delusion,  they  begin  to  condemn 
lluir  past  follies,  reflect  with  shame  on  having  so  long  pLiycd  the  game 
().f  an  artful  enemy,  and  arc  convinc(d  that  witliout  unjinimity  tliey 
never  can  obtain  such  consideration  as  may  entitle  thim  to  demand, 
with  any  prospect  of  success,  iho  just  and  common  rights  of  mankind. 
Peligious  bigotry  is  losing  its  force  everywhere.  Commercial  and 
not  religious  interests  are  tlie  objects  of  almost  every  nation  in  Europe.' 
— Pnfocc  to  the  cdiiio?i  (f  Muli/ncux's  '  Case  of  Ireland,'  which  appeared 
in  1770. 


ADYOCATES  EMANCIPATION. 


131 


emancipation.     Flood,  Charlemont,  and  Lucas  had  a 
different  theory.     They  foresaw  that  the  admission  of 
the  Koman  Catholics  to  political  equality  would  sooner 
or  later  prove  incompatible  with  the  establishment  of 
the  Church  of  the  minority ;  they  were  not  prepared 
to   surrender  that  establishment,  and    they  therefore 
maintained  that  while  the  Koman  Catholics  sliould  be 
admitted   to  perfect    toleration,  they  should   not   be 
admitted  to  political  power.     This  distinction  Grattan 
refused  to  i-ecognise.     He  argued  that  to  exclude  the 
great  bulk  of  the  people  from  Parliament  on  account 
of  their  religion  was  to  inflict  upon  them  a  positive 
injury,  and  to  deprive  them  of  all  security  for  their  toler- 
ation.    '  Civil  and  religious  liberty,'  he  said  in  one  of 
liis  speeches, ' depends  on  political  power;  the  commu- 
nity that  has  no  share  directly  or  indirectly  in  political 
power  has  no  security  for  its    political  libeity.'     He 
supported  the  establishment  warmly  and  consistently,* 
but  he  made  a  vigorous  effort,  in  1788,  to  substitute 
some  other  mode  of  payment  for  the  tithes,  which  were 
cliiefly  taken  from  the  Koman  Catholics.     He  believed 
also,  Hke  most  eminent  men  of  his  generation,  that 
the  difference  between   the  two    religions   was  much 
exaggerated;    that  it  was  continually  lessening,  and 
tbar^he  process  of  assimilation  would  be  greatly  ac- 
celerated by  the  removal  of  tlie  religious  disabilities. 
His  speeches  are  full  of  intimations  of  this  opinion. 
'Bigotry  may  survive  persecution,  but    it  can  never 

>  In  a  letter  to  tlio  Lord  Mavur  and  Shfriffs  of  Dublin,  on  June  1, 
179->  he  s;.id  :  « I  lovctlie  Jlomau  Catholic  ;  I  am  ii  friend  to  his  liberty, 
but  it  is  only  inasmuch  as  his  liberty  is  entirely  consistent  ^vlth  your 
a'^cendenov.  and  an  addition  to  the  strength  and  freedom  of  the  Tro- 
trstant  commnwiy: -Miscellaneous  IVorks,  p.  282.  An  Irish  Protestant 
in  the  lust  century  could  perhaps  hardly  ^^Titc  or  think  otherwise,  and 
it  by  no  means  follo^s-s  that  if  ho  l.Tcd  now  his  opinion  i^ould  bo  the 


same. 


132  HENRY  ghatta??. 

survive  toleration.'  '  What  Lutlicr  did  for  iis,  philo- 
sophy has  done  in  some  degree  for  the  Roman  Catholics, 
and  their  religion  has  undergone  a  silent  reformation  ; 
and  both  divisions  of  Christianity^  unless  they  have 
lost  their  understanding,  must  have  lost  their  ani- 
mosity, tliough  they  have  retained  their  distinctions.' 
^It  is  the  error  of  sects  to  value  themselves  more  upon 
their  differences  than  upon  their  religion.' 

Among  the  Eoman  Catholics  themselves,  for  a  con- 
siderable time,  scarcely  any  political  life  had  existed. 
About  the  middle  of  the  century,  it  is  true,  three 
Catholic  writers,  named  O'Connor,  Wyse,  and  Curry, 
made  laudable  efforts  to  arouse  them  ;  but  their  spirits 
were  completely  cowed  by  long  oppression,  and  the 
restrictions  on  education  had  prevented  tlie  develop- 
ment of  their  intellect.  At  last,  however,  Father 
O'Leary,  a  writer  of  real  genius,  rose  among  them.  It 
is  impossible  to  read  his  works  without  regretting  that  an 
eloquence  of  such  extraordinary  brilliancy  was  not  ex- 
erted more  frequently,  and  on  works  of  greater  magni- 
tude. His  principal  performances  are  a  series  of  masterly 
letters  to  "Wesley,  who  had  written  against  the  removal 
of  tlic  penal  laws ;  an  address  to  the  Roman  Catholics, 
inculcating  loyalty  during  the  Rebellion  of  1745  ;  and 
a  short  treatise  on  the  Socinian  controversy.  In 
England  he  is  scarcely  known  except  by  his  happy 
retort  to  a  Protestant  bishop,  to  whose  picture  of  the 
horrors  of  purgatory  he  replied,  '  Your  lordship  might 
go  fiirther  and  fare  worse ; '  but  his  name  is  still 
popular  in  Ireland,  and  his  writings  are  well  worthy  of 
perusal,  if  it  were  only  for  tlie  great  beauty  of  their 
style.  He  was  in  his  day  beyond  all  comparison  the 
most  brilliant  ^Vl•iter  in  Ireland ;  and  had  lie  moved 
in  a  wider  sphere,  and  written  on  subjects  of  more 
endunng  value,  he  might  have  taken  a  place  among 


HEUEF    BILL    OF    1793.  1"'^ 

the  great  masters  of  Englisli  prose.     He  was  admitted 
a  member  of  a  convivial  society  called  the  '  Monks  of 
the  Screw,'  which  was  presided  over  by  Cm-ran,  and 
which  included  all  tlie  first  men  in  the  country.     It  is 
a  slight  but  significant  fact,  that  when  on  one  occasion 
he  went  to  the  Volunteer  Convention,  the  Volunteer 
guard  turned  out  and  presented  arms  to  this  Catholic 
priest.     He  attained  a  position  in  Ireland  which  no 
member  of  his  order  had  held  for  more  than  a  century  ; 
Ills  writings  were  widely  read,  and  Grattan  panegyrised 
liim  in  Parliament.     The  concluding  sentence  of  that 
j.anegyric    is   curiously   characteristic  of   the  speaker, 
of  hi7  subject,  and  of  the  theological  temperature  of 
their  time.     '  If  I  did  not  know  him,'  lie  said,  '  to  be 
a  Christian  clergyman,  I  sliould  suppose  him  by  his 
writings  to  be  a  philosopher  of  the  Augustan  age.' 

With  this  exception,  the  Catholics  seem  to  havc^ 
made  scarcely  any  exertion  to  improve  tlieir  conditit.n 
until  1792  and  1793,  when  they  formed  a  convention, 
under  a  leader  named  Keo-li,  fur  the  purpose  of  ])re- 
paring  petitions  to  tlie  King  and  to  the  Parliament. 

Grattan  conducted  their  cause  with  great  tnct.  lb- 
refused  to  make  it  a  party  (piestion,  and  by  this  refusal 
obtained  tlie  assistance  of  Sir  Hercules  Langrishe,  wIk) 
was  one  of  the  ablest  of  his  political  opponents,  and 
left  it  always  opcm  to  the  jNIinisters  to  adopt  his  view.-. 
At  last,  in  1793,  a  Pelief  Bill,  admitting  the  Koman 
Catholics  to  the  elective  franchise,  was  introduced  by 
the  Government,  and,  after  a  warm  debate,  was  earned. 
In  the  course  of  the  discussion  Grattan  made  tlie  tol- 
lowing  statement  of  the  case:  'The  situation  of  the 
Roman  Catholics  is  reducible  to  four  propositions. 
They  are  three-fourths  of  your  people  paying  tlieir 
proportion  of  near  2,000,000/.  of  taxes,  without  any 
bhare  in  the  representation  or  expenditure  ;  they  pay 


134  HENRY   GRATTAN. 

your  Church  establishment  without  any  retribution ; 
they  discharge  the  active  and  laborious  offices  of  life, 
manufacture,  husbandry,  and  commerce,  without  tliose 
franchises  which  are  annexed  to  the  fruits  of  industry ; 
and  they  replenish  your  armies  and  navies  without 
commission,  rank,  or  reward.  Under  these  circum- 
stances, and  under  the  further  recommendation  of  total 
and  entire  political  separation  from  any  foreign  prince 
or  pretender,  they  desire  to  be  admitted  to  the  franchise 
of  the  constitution.'  AVhile  supporting  the  Grovern- 
mcnt  Act,  Grattan  complained  greatly  of  its  imper- 
fection. The  admission  of  the  Roman  Catholics  tc 
Parliament  was  its  necessary  complement,  and  by  one 
bold  measure  the  Ministers  might  have  set  the  ques- 
tion at  rest  for  ever.  The  measure  of  1793  conferred 
political  power  on  the  uneducated  masses,  while  it  re- 
tained the  disqualification  of  the  educated  few.  Had 
emancipation  at  this  time  been  conceded,  the  great 
Catholic  landlords,  being  brought  forward  prominently 
in  tlie  parliamentary  arena,  would  have  become  the 
natural  leaders  of  their  co-religionists,  and  the  Irish 
Catholic  landlords  have  always  been  as  K^yal,  as  mode- 
rate, and  as  enliglitened  as  the  Protestant  ones.  Put 
the  penal  laws  having  reduced  this  class  to  the  smallest 
dimensions,  and  Tory  obstinacy  having  deprived  them 
of  the  means  of  acquiring  their  legitimate  political 
influence,  it  is  not  surprising  that  the  formation  of 
Catholic  opinion  should  have  ultimately  devolved  upon 
agitators  and  priests.  A  Bill  for  completing  the  relief 
was  at  this  time  actually  brought  forward,  but  was 
defeated  by  Government  influence. 

The  Relief  Bill  of  "93  naturally  suggests  a  considera- 
tion of  the  question  so  often  agitated  in  Ireland, 
whether  tlie  Union  was  really  a  benefit  to  the  Roman 
Catholic    cause.      It   has   been  argued    that  Catholic 


EFFECT    OF    THE    UNION    ON    E^IANCIPATION.  135 

emancipation  was  an  impossibility  as  long  as  the  Irish 
Parliament  lasted  ;   for  in  a  country  where  the  great 
majority  were  Roman  Catholics,  it  would  be  folly  to 
expect  the  members  of  the  dominant  creed  to  surrender 
a  monopoly  on  which  their  ascendency  depended.    The 
argimients  against  this  view  are,  I  believe,  overwhelm- 
ing.   The  injustice  of  the  disqualification  was  far  more 
strikinof  before  the  Union  than  after  it.     In  the  on(^ 
case   the  Roman    Catholics  were    excluded   from   the 
Parliament  of  a  nation  of  which  they  were  the  great 
majority  ;  in  the  other  they  were  excluded  from  the 
Parliament  of  an  empire  in  which  they  were  a  small 
minority.      Grattan,  Plunket,  Curran,  Burrowes,  and 
Ponsonby  were  the  great  supporters  of  Catholic  eman- 
cipation, and  the  great  opponents  of  the  Union.    Clare 
and  Duigenan  were  the  two  great  opponents  of  eman- 
cipation, and  the  great  supporters  of  the  Union.     ALa 
time   when    scarcely   any   public    opmipn    existed    in 
Ireland,    when    the    Roman    Catholics    were    nearly 
quiescent,  and  when  the  leaning  of  Government  was 
generally   illiberal,    the    Irish  J^testants    atoitted 
thek^-llow-subjects  to  the  magistracy,  to  the  jury- 
box,  and  to  th^  franchise.     By  this  last  measure  they 
gave  them  an  amount  of  political  power  wliich  neces- 
sarily implied  complete    emancipation.      Even  if  no 
leader   of  genius   had    risen   in    the  Roman  Catholic 
ranks,  and  if  no   spirit  of   entliusiasm  had  animated 
tlieir  councils,  the  influence  possessed  by  a  body  who 
formed    three-fourths    of    the   population,   who    were 
rapidly  rising  in  wealth,  and  who  could  send  their  re- 
presentatives to  Parliament,  would  have  been  sufficient 
to  ensure  their  triumph.*     If  the  Irish  Legislature  had 

'  This  was  the  opinion  expressed  by  Fox  in  one  of  his  letters  soon 
after  the  recall  of  Lcrd  Fit-zwilliam  :  '  As  to  the  Catliolic  Bill,  it  is  not 
only  right  in  principle,  but,  aftrr  all   that  was  given  to  the  Catholics 


136  HENRT   G  RATTAN. 

continued,  it  would  have  been  found  impossible  to 
resist  tlie  demand  for  reform  ;  and  every  reform,  by 
diminishing  the  overgrown  power  of  a  few  Protestant 
landholders,  would  have  increased  that  of  the  Roman 
Catholics.  The  concession  accorded  in  1793  was,  in 
fact,  far  greater  and  more  important  than  that  accorded 
in  1829,  and  it  placed  the  Roman  Catholics,  in  a  great 
measure,  above  the  mercy  of  Protestants.  But  this 
was  not  all.  The  sympathies  of  the  Protestants  were 
being  rapidly  enlisted  in  their  behalf.  The  generation 
to  wliich  Charlemont  and  Flood  belonged  had  passed 
away,  and  all  the  leading  intellects  of  the  country, 
almost  all  the  Opposition,  and  several  conspicuous 
members  of  the  Government,  were  warmly  in  favour 
of  emancipation.  The  rancour  which  at  present  exists 
between  the  members  of  the  two  creeds  appears  then 
to  Imve  been  almost  unknown,  and  the  real  obstacle  to 
emancipation  was  not  tlie  feelings  of  the  people,^  but 
the  policy  of  the  Government.  The  Bar  may  be  con- 
sidered on  most  subjects  a  very  fair  exponent  of  the 
educated  opinion  of  the  nation  ;  and  AVolfe  Tone  ob- 
served, in  1792,  tliat  it  was  almost  unanimous  in  favour 
of  the  Catholics ;  and  it  is  not  without  importance,  as 
showing  the  tendencies  of  the  rising  generation,  that  a 

two  years  ng^o,  it  seems  little  short  of  madness  (and  at  such  a  time  as 
tliis)  to  dispute  about  the  Vlty  little  that  reuiuins  to  be  given  thera.  To 
suppose  it  possible  that  now  tliey  are  electors  they  Avill  long  submit  to 
be  ineligible,  appears  to  me  to  be  absurd  beyond  measure  ;  but  common 
sense  SL-cins  to  be  totally  lost  out  of  the  councils  of  tliis  devoted  countiT.' 
— Lnrd  IiKSSiiPs  Life  of  Fox,  vol.  iii.  p.  73. 

•  Tlie  testimony  of  Lorvl  Sheffield  (who  was  adverse  to  the  proposi- 
tion of  giving  votes  to  the  Catholics)  to  the  feelings  of  the  Irish  Prot.s- 
tants  is  very  remarkable.  He  says,  in  a  work  published  in  17So: 
'Tlici  riglit  of  being  elected  would  surt-ly  follow  tlieir  being  eligible; 
but,  at  all  events,  the  power  would  be  in  tlie  electors.  It  is  curious  to 
observe  one-fifth  or  perhaps  one-sixth  of  a  nation  in  possession  of  the 
power  and  property  of  the  country,  eager  to  communicate  that  power  to 
tlie  remaining  four-fifths,  which  would  in  effect  entirely  transfer  it  frou) 
t]\>\\\-r]\-Qs.''-  ■  Ohsrrva,'io7is  on  the  'Ihuh  <f  Irdand,  ]).  372. 


gotehnment  orrosiiiON  to  emancipation.       137 

large  body  of  tlie  students  of  DuLlin  University  in 
1795  presented  an  address  to  Grattan,  thanking  liim 
for  his  labours  in  the  cause.  The  Eoman  Catholics 
were  rapidly  gaining  the  public  opinion  of  Ireland, 
when  the  Union  arrayed  against  them  another  public 
opinion  -which  was  deeply  prejudiced  against  their 
faith,  and  almost  entirely  removed  from  their  influence. 
Compare  the  twenty  years  before  the  Union  with  the 
twenty  years  that  followed  it,  and  the  change  is  suffi- 
ciently manifest.  There  can  scarcely  be  a  question 
that  if  Lord  Fitzwilliara  had  remained  in  office  the 
Irish  Parliament  would  readily  have  given  emancipa- 
tion. In  the  United  Parliament  for  many  years  it  was 
obstinately  rejected,  and  if  Q'Connell  had  never  arisen 
it  would  probably  never  have  been  granted  unqijalifiecl 
by  the  veto.  In  1828,  when  the  (piestion  was  brought 
forward  in  Parliament,  Gl  out  of  93  Irish  members, 
45  out  of  Gl  Irish  county  members,  voted  in  its  favour. 
Year  after  ye»ar  Grattan  and  Plunket  brought  forwa_rd 
the  case  of  their  fellow-countrymen  with  an  eloo[iieuce 
and  a  perseverance  worthy  of  their  j^rcat  cause ;  but 
year  after,  year  they  w^cre  defeated.  It  was  not  till  the 
greatjtribune  had  arisen,  till  he  had  moulded  his  co- 
religionists into  "one  compact  and  threateninij:  mas s , 
aiurjiad_J:)joughtthe^  Gentry j^^^^  _thejverge  of  iiimiii- 
tioii^  that  the  tardy  boon  was  conceded.  Eloquence 
and  argument  j^roved  alike  unavailing  when  unac- 
companied  by  menace,  and  Catholic  emancipation  w^as 
conTessedly  granted  because  to  withhold  it  would  be  to 
produce  a  rebellion. 

The  refusal  of  the  Government  to  complete  tlie 
enfranchisement  of  the  lioman  Catholics  had  a  great 
influence  in  stimulating  disloyalty  in  the  country,  but 
most  especially  among  the  Protestants.  The  convic- 
tion that  the  removal  of  all  religious  disabilities  was 
essential    to    the  welfare  aud  to  the  security  of  tho 


138  HENRY    G RATTAN. 

independence  of  Ireland,  was  rapidly  gaining  ground. 
In  1782,  as  we  have  already  seen,  tlie  representatives 
of  143  corps  of  Volunteers  passed  a  resolution,  with  but 
two  dissentient  voices,  expressing  their  approval  of  the 
naitigation  of  the  penal  code.  In  1792  a  petition  for 
emancipation,  signed  by  600  Protestant  householders 
of  Belfast,  was  presented  to  the  Parliament.  In  1791 
the  club  of  United  Irishmen  had  been  formed,  to  advo- 
cate the  Catholic  claims.  This  club  consisted  originally 
chiefly  of  Protestants,  who  were  under  no  obligation  to 
secrecy,  and  who  were  merely  pledged  '  to  promote  a 
union  of  friendship  between  Irishmen  of  every  religious 
persuasion,  and  to  forward  a  full,  fair,  and  adequate 
representation  of  all  tlie  people  in  Parliament.'  It 
was  presided  over  by  Hamilton  Rowan,  a  Protestant 
gentleman  of  large  fortune,  and  a  most  amiable  and 
chivalrous  character  ;  and  it  was  at  first  of  a  perfectly 
loyal  character.  Grattan  was  not  in  any  way  con- 
nected with  it ;  but,  like  all  the  Liberals  of  the  time, 
he  was  labouring  for  the  attainment  of  its  two  great 
objects  —  Catholic  emancipation  and  Parliamentary 
reform.  The  latter  subject  he  brought  forward,  in 
conjunction  with  Ponsonby,  in  1793.  He  stated  in  his 
speech  tluit  less  than  ninety,  individuals  returned  a 
majority  of  the  Parliament ;  but  he  was  imable  to  pass 
his  Bill.  There  appears  indeed  to  be  Httle  question 
tliat  during  the  later  years  of  the  Ministry  of  Pitt  it 
was  the  linn  resolution  of  the  Government  not  only  to 
resist  the  attempts  to  purify  the  Parliament,  but  also 
steadily  and  deliberately  to  inci;x?ase  its  corruption. 
Fitzgibbon,  afterwards  Lord  Clare,  was  the  chief  agent 
in  attaining  this  end.  His  avowed  political  maxim 
was  that  '  the  only  security  for  national  concurrence 
is  a  permanent  and  commanding  influence  of  the 
English  Executive,  or  ratlicr  English  Cabinet,  in  the 
councils  of  Ireland  ; '  and  for  many  years  before  the 


NEAV    FOUMS   OF    CORRLTTION.  139 

Union   Uie  GovernmeRt  was   continually  multiplying 
places,  in  order  to  increase  that  influence.      Grattan 
described  the  country  as  placed  '  in  a  sort  of  interval 
l)etween  the  cessation  of  a  system  of  oppression  and 
the  formation   of  a   system   of  corruption;'    and   he 
scarcely  exaggerated  the  proceedings  of  the  Irish  rulers 
when  he  described  them  as  '  a  set  of  men  possessing 
themselves  of  civil,  military,  and  ecclesiastical  autho- 
rity, and  using  it  with  a  fixed  and  malignant  intention 
to   corrupt   the   morals,  in    order   to   undermine  the 
freedom,  of  the  people.'     Iu^l787  a  PeacePreservation 
Bill  cancelled  the  whole  magjstracy ;  and,  in  addition 
to^nan3^other   appointments,    gave    a   salaried    and 
judicial  position  to  thirty-two  barristers.     In  1789  no 
less  than  sixteen  p_eers  werc_created  or  p_rgmoted,  and 
the    pensimillist   was   increased  by    ISjQpoL  a    year. 
Ponsonby,  at  this  time,  declared  that  there  wercJJO 
placemen  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  that  one- 
eiohtF~of  the    revcnue_of   the  country  was   di\dded 
b'Swecn_mcmbcrs  of  Parliament.     Five  more  Treasury 
places  wcre_created  in  1 793.     The  disfranchisement  of 
revenue   officers    had   been    carried   in   England  with 
general  approval  and  with  excellent   effect ;  but  the 
repeated  efforts  of  Grattan  to  carry  it  in  Ireland  were 
invariably  defeated  by  the  Government,  and  the  utmost 
that  the  patriots  could    procure  was   the  permanent 
reduction  of  the  pension  list  to  80,000L  a  year,  a  Bill 
by  which  those  who  accepted  office  were  unable  to  sit 
in  Parliament  without  re-election,  and  a  little  more 
direct  Parliamentary  control  over  the  pension  list.^ 

Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
the  many  elements  of  disloyalty  and  of  turbulence 
which  smouldered  in  the  coimtry  should  have  acquired 

»  I  have  taken  most  of  tlicse  facts  from  G  rattan's  Life,  by  his  sou, 
yyV/Hh  is  probably  the  best  history  of  Ireland  at  the  period  under  con- 
eideration. 


140  HENRY    GRATTAN. 

new  strength.  Wlioevcr  desires  to  understand  the 
manner  in  which  they  were  deveh^ped  sliould  study 
the  clear  and  evidently  trutliful  memoir  on  the  rise 
and  aims  of  the  United  Irislimen,  which  was  drawn  up 
by  their  three  leaders,  O'Connor,  Eramett,  and  Mac- 
nevin,  when  State  prisoners.^  The  society,  they  tell  us, 
was  at  first  simply  and  frankly  loyal,  aiming  solely  at 
Parliamentary  reform  and  Catholic  emancipation,  and 
valuing  the  latter  cliicfly  as  a  condition  or  an  element 
of  the  former.  But,  even  in  1791,  '  it  was  clearly  per- 
ceived tliat  tlie  chief  support  of  the  borough  influence 
in  Ireland  was  tlie  weii>:lit  of  Enoiish  influence.'  About 
1795  the  persistent  and  successful  opposition  of  the 
Government  t^  reforai  made  the  United  Irishnien  Jbr 
the  first  time  disloyal.  '  They  began  to  be  convinced 
that  it  would  bo  as  easy  to  obtain  a  revolution  as  a 
reform,  so  obstinately  was  the  latter  resisted  ;  and,  as 
tliis  conviction  impressed  itself  on  their  minds,  they 
were  inclined,  not  to  give  up  the  struggle,  but  to 
extend  their  views.  .  .  .  Still,'  they  add,  'the  whole 
body,  we  are  convinced,  would  have  rejoiced  to  stop 
sliort  at  reform.'  They  tried  to  avail  themselves  of 
Frencli  assistance,  because  '  they  perceived  that  their 
strength  was  not,  and  was  not  likely  to  become,  equal 
to  wresting  from  the  English  and  the  borough  interests 
in  Ireland  even  a  reform.'  They  decided  ultimately 
upon  making  separation  rather  than  reform  their  ideal, 
because  '  foreign  assistance  could  only  be  hoped  for  in 
proportion  as  the  o])ject  to  which  it  would  be  applied 
was  important  to  tlie  party  giving  it.  A  reform  in  the 
Irish  Parliament  was  no  object  to  the  French  ;  a  sepa- 
ration of  Ireland  from  England  was  a  mighty  one 
indeed.' 

In    addition    to    these   considerations,  we    must  re- 
member that  the  moral  influence  of  the  French  Revo- 

'    '  Castk-i-i'Mgli  Cu;Tfi;puiKlcnc'','  Vol.  i. 


THE    UNITED    IRISHMEN.  141 

lution  liad  begun  to  operate  upon  the  country.  It  is 
difficult  for  us,  among  whom  the  principles  it  enun- 
ciated are  now  regarded  as  mere  truisms,  to  realise 
the  transports  of  enthusiasm  and  the  paroxysms  of 
terror  with  which  that  revolution  was  regarded  by 
friends  and  foes.  The  dramatic  grandeur  of  its  cir- 
cumstances ;  the  expansive  character  it  exhibited ;  the 
startling  boldness  of  its  doctrines  and  its  aspirations ; 
the  eloquence,  and  heroism,  and  self-devotion,  that 
mingled  with  and  half  redeemed  its  horrors,  had  all 
tended  to  awaken  an  almost  delirious  enthusiasm  in 
Europe.  Even  in  England,  though  the  long-established 
free  institutions  and  the  strong  aversion  to  everything 
French  might  have  been  deemed  a  sufficient  barrier, 
the  Government  tliought  it  necessary  to  put  in  motion 
all  the  long-disused  engines  of  coercion  to  repress  tlie 
new  opinions.  But  in  Ireland,  where  the  ground-swell 
of  agitation  produced  by  the  movement  tliat  had  ter- 
minated in  1782  had  not  yet  subsided,  where  the 
memory  of  the  Volunteers  was  still  fresh  in  every 
mind,  where  tlie  traditions  of  past  oppression  and  the 
spectacle  of  present  abuses  were  alienating  the  people 
from  England,  while  an  affinity  of  character  and  an 
old  del)t  of  gratitude  were  drawing  them  to  France,  it 
is  not  surprising  that  tlie  devolution  should  have 
produced  a  deep  and  a  lasting  effect.  As  I  have  said, 
its  adliercnts  in  Ireland  were  at  first  chiefly  Protes- 
tants. What  little  republicanism  existed  in  Jreland  was 
mainly  among  the  Presbyterians  of  Ulster.  AVexford 
was  the  only  county  where  the  rebellion  was  distinc- 
tively Roman  Catlioljc,  and  even  there  Bagenal  Harvey, 
it^Jeader,  wasji  Protestant.  G  rattan  and  the  Govern- 
ment both  perceived  the  coming  storm.  The  latter,  in 
1793,  brought  forward  a  j^ill  making  those  conven- 
tions which  had  hitherto  proved  the  most  powerful 
or^Jana  of  public    opinion    illegal.     G rattan,   Curran, 


142  HENRY   G RATTAN. 

and  Ponsonby  -warmly  opposed  the  motion,  but  with- 
out  success  ;  and  that  Convention  Act,  which  after- 
wards proved  one  of  the  greatest  obstacles  in  O'ConnelFs 
course,  became  law\  Grattan,  on  the  other  hand,  urged 
the  Government  to  grant  those  reforms  by  which  alone 
rebellion  could  be  p.verted,  and  the  people  to  abstain 
from  that  violence  which  would  imperil  the  existence 
of  their  constitution. 

Ponsonbv's  Reform  Bill  was  brouo^ht  forward  aijain, 
though  without  success,  in  1794,  and  Grattan  took  the 
occasion  to  give  a  distinct  outline  of  his  policy.  Kc 
de^ed  '  that  Ireland  should  improve  her  constitution, 
correct  its  abuses,  and  assimilate  it  as  much  as  possible 
to  that  of  Great  Britain  ;  that  whenever  Administra- 
tions should  attempt  to  act  unconstitutionally,  but, 
above  all,  whenever  they  should  tamper  with  the  inde- 
pendence of  Parliament,  they  should  be  checked  by  all 
means  that  the  constitution  justifies ;  but  that  these 
measures  and  this  general  plan  should  be  pursued  by 
Ireland  with  a  fixed,  steady,  and  unalterable  resolution 
to  stand  or  fall  witli  Great  Britain.  Whenever  Great 
Britain,  therefore,  should  be  clearly  involved  in  war, 
Ireland  should  grant  her  a  decided  and  unequivocal 
support,  except  that  war  should  be  carried  on  against 
her  own  liberty.' 

At  last  it  seemed  as  though  better  councils  had  pre- 
vailed. A  large  section  of  the  Whigs,  in  consequence 
of  the  French  Ivevolution,  had  deserted  Fox,  and  had 
united  themselves  with  Pitt,  w^ho,  in  order  to  ingratiate 
himself  with  his  new  allies,  consented,  after  very  con- 
sideral)lc  hesitation,  to  recall  Lord  Westmoreland,  and 
to  send  over  Lord  Fitzwilliam  as  Lord-Lieutenant. 
Lord  Fitzwilliam  w'as  one  of  the  most  imjiortant  per- 
sonages in  the  Whig  party,  an  intimate  friend  of 
Grattan,  and  a  warm  and  avowed  supporter  of  Catholic 


LORD    FITZWILLIAM.  143 

cnianciimtion.  Sucli  an  appoinlmcnt  at  such  a  moment 
could  only  be  construed  in  Ireland  in  one  way. 
Catholic  emancipation  was  the  pressing  question  of  the 
hour.  Pitt  had  early  expressed  himself  in  its  favour. 
At  a  time  when  it  was  known  to  be  in  agitation  he  re- 
called a  Viceroy  who  was  opposed  to  it,  and  sent  over 
one  who  was  known  to  be  its  ardent  friend.  Lord 
Fitzwilliam  was  directed,  indeed,  not  to  bring  it  for- 
ward ;  but  he  had  no  instructions  to  oppose  it,  and  was 
left,  as  he  afterwards  declared,  a  full  discretion  to 
deal  with  the  question,  if  brought  forward,  as  might 
seem  to  him  advisable,  l^tt  hnnself  asked  an  inter-  j 
view  with  Grattan,  and  staled  to  him  the  intended 
policy  of  the  Government  in  a  remarkable  sentence, 
which  was  afterwards  published  by  Grattan's  son,  on 
the  autliority  of  his  father,  and  which  there  is  no 
reason  whatever  for  thinking  inaccurately  reported. 
Their  intention  was  ^  not  to  bri£g  forward  emanci- 
tion  as  a  Government,  ])ut  if  Government  were  pressed, 
to  yield  to  it.' 

Under  these  circumstances  it  appeared  obvious  that, 
if  the  dispositions  of  the  Irish  people  and  Parliament 
were  favourable  to  emancipation,  there  was  no  obstacle 
to  encounter.  Lord  Fitzwilliam  landed  in  Ireland  in 
December  1794,  and  was  at  once  received  with  a  most 
significant  enthusiasm  of  loyalty.  Petitions  in  unpre- 
cedented numbers  poured  in  from  the  Catholics,  asking 
for  emancipation  ;  and  the  great  majority  of  tlie  Pro- 
testants were  unquestionably  strongly  in  favour  of  it. 
Lord  Fitzwilliam  was  afterwards  able  to  represent  to 
the  King  '  the  universal  approbation  with  which  the 
emancipation  of  the  Catholics  was  received  on  the  part 
of  his  Protestant  subjects  ;'  *  and  in  his  letter  to  Lord 
Carlisle,  after  his   recall,  he   described   the    state  of 

'  See  his  letter  to  Grattan  in  Grattau's  Life,  by  his  son. 


144  HENRY    G RATTAN. 

feeling  in  IreLmd  in  terms  wbicli  need  no  comment. 
It  was  a  time,  lie  wrote,  '  when  the  jealousy  and 
alarm  which  certainly  at  the  first  period  pervaded  the 
minds  of  the  Protestant  body  exist  no  longer — when 
not  one  Protestant  corporation,  scarcely  an  individual, 
has  come  forward  to  deprecate  and  oppose  the  indul- 
gence claimed  by  the  higher  order  of  Catholics — when 
even  some  of  those  who  were  most  alarmed  in  1793, 
and  were  then  the  most  violent  opposers,  declare  the 
indulgences  now  asked  to  be  only  the  necessary  conse- 
quences of  those  granted  at  that  time,  and  positively 
essential  to  secure  the  well-being  of  the  two  countries.'' 
Lord  Fitzwilliam,  in  answering  the  addresses  that  were 
presented  to  him,  used  language  which  clearly  inti- 
mated his  sympathy  with  their  cause ;  and  such  lan- 
guage, coming  at  such  a  time  from  the  representative 
of  the  Sovereign,  very  naturally  removed  all  doubts 
from  the  minds  of  tlie  Catholics.  In  Parliament  the 
almost  universal  feeling  of  the  country  was  fully  re- 
flected. As  on  the  occasion  of  Irish  emancipation  in 
1782,  extraordinary  supplies  were  voted  in  testimony 
of  the  loyalty  of  the  nation.  Grattan,  though  without 
an  official  position,  became  virtually  the  leader  of  the 
Government ;  and  the  French  party  appeared  to  have 
almost  disappeared.  Grattan  obtained  leave  to  bring 
in  an  Emancipation  Bill,  with  but  three  dissentient 
voices ;  and  that  Bill  had  been  drawn  up  by  him  in 
concert  with  Lord  Fitzwilliam  and  the  Cabinet.  It 
was  understood  that  a  Reform  Bill  would  follow  ;  and 
one  of  the  most  important  leaders  of  the  LTnited  Irish- 
men afterwards  said  that  in  that  case  their  quarrel 
with  Enoland  would  have  been  at  an  en  :\  The  wdiolo 
Catholic  population  were  strung  to  the  highest  pitch 
of  excitement.  The  Protestants  were,  for  the  most 
part,    enthusiastically    loyal  ;    and    the    revolutionary 


nECALL   OF   LORD    FITZWILLIAM.  115 

Spirit  had  almost  subsided,  "when  Pitt  suddenly  and 
peremptorily  recalled  Lord  Fitzwilliara,  and  made  the 
rebellion  which  followed  inevitable. 

The  precise  motives  of  tli is  recall,  which  plung^ed 
Ireland  into  the  agonies  of  civil  war  and  threw  back 
the  Catholic  ([ucstion  for  thirty-four  years,  have  been 
a  matter  of  much  controversy.  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  in 
going  to  Ireland,  thought  it  necessary  to  exercise  his 
authority  as  chief  governor  by  dismissing  certain  offi- 
cials who  were  directly  opposed  to  the  policy  he  in- 
tended to  pursue ;  and  among  these  were  two  men  of 
great  influence :  Cooke,  the  Secretary  of  War — who,  a 
few  years  later,  was  put  forward  as  the  first  advocate  of 
tlie  Union — and  Beresford,  a  Commissioner  of  Revenue, 
who  was  at  the  licad  of  one  of  the  most  powerful  and 
most  grasping  families  in  Ireland.  These  measures 
were  mitigated  as  much  as  possible  ;  for  Cooke  was 
compensated  by  a  pension  of  1,200^.  a  year,  and 
Beresford  retained  the  whole  of  his  official  revenue  ; 
but  J^ercsford,  notwithstanding,  went  immediately  to 
London ;  and  lie  was  supported  in  his  complaints  by 
tlic  Chancellor,  Lord  Fitzgibbon,  who  was  the  favourite 
]Minister  of  Pitt,  and  at  tlie  same  time  the  bitterest 
enomy  of  the  Catholics.  To  this  influence  the  recall 
of  Lord  Fitzwilliam  was  ascribed,  but  though  a  reason, 
it  was  probably  not  the  only  one.  It  is  scarcely  pro- 
Ijable  tliat  the  dismissal  of  a  subordinate  Minister  was 
the  sole  cause  of  a  measure  which  plainly  threatened 
the  gravest  and  most  disastrous  consequences  to  the 
empire.  The  truth  seems  to  be  that  Pitt  was  extremely 
jealous  of  his  Whig  colleagues,  and  afraid  of  their  ob- 
taining a  predominant  influence  in  the  Cabinet.  The 
King  had  declared  his  strong  opposition  to  emancipa- 
tion. Tlie  Minister  woidd  have  found  sovf^^.'^^^ — ' 
with  his  Tory  friends  ;  and,  n i ' ' 
8 


146  HENRY   G  I?  ATT  AN. 

wliicli  he  then  was  it  i?  almost  certain  that  he  could 
liave  carried  the  measure,  he  would  have  weakened 
and  divided  his  party,  and  given  the  Whig  element 
in  his  councils  a  considerable  ascendency.  He  only 
sent  over  Lord  Fitzwilliam  with  reluctance,  and  he 
probably  hesitated  and  vacillated  about  the  extent 
to  wliich  he  was  prepared  to  go.  Personally  he  pro- 
f<  ssed  extremely  liberal  views  about  the  Catholics,  and 
he  must  have  been  quite  aware  of  the  danger  of  refusing 
their  demands ;  but  a  careful  examination  will  show  that 
at  every  period  of  his  career  he  sacrificed  or  subordinated 
political  principles  to  party  ends.  But,  besides  these 
reasons,  it  is  probable  that  he  was  already  looking  for- 
ward to  the  Union.  The  steady  object  of  his  later 
Irish  policy  was  to  corrupt  and  to  degrade,  in  order 
that  he  ultimately  might  destroy,  the  Legislature  of 
the  country.  Had  Parliament  been  made  a  mirror  ot* 
the  national  will — had  the  Catholics  been  brought 
within  tlie  pale  of  the  constitution — his  policy  would 
have  been  defeated.  Thus  it  was  that  a  Minister  who 
professed  himself  a  warm  friend  of  Catholic  emancipa- 
tion did  more  than  any  other  English  statesman  to 
adjourn  the  solution  of  the  question ;  that  a  Minister 
w'ho  began  his  career  as  the  eloquent  champion  of 
Parliamentary  reform  resisted  steadily  every  attempt 
to  reform  the  most  corrupt  borough  system  in  Europe  ; 
that  a  Minister  whose  political  purity  has  been  the 
theme  of  so  many  eulogists,  was  guilty  in  Ireland  of  a 
corruption  before  which  the  worst  acts  of  Newcastle 
and  Walpole  dwindle  into  insignificance.  The  pro- 
minent part  which  Fitzgibbon  and  Cooke  took  in  this 
transaction  strengthens  the  probability  that  the  con- 
templated Union  had  some  influence  over  the  decision 
of  Pitt ;  and  it  is  at  least  certain  that  the  recall  of 
T      ^  ""fitzwilliam  arrested  a  policy  which  would  have 


RECALL    OF   LORD   FITZWILLIAM.  147 

made  it  at  that  time  impossible.  By  raising  the  hopes 
of  the  Catholics  almost  to  certainty,  and  then  dashing 
them  to  the  ground ;  by  taking  tliis  step  at  the  very 
moment  when  the  inflammatory  spirit  engendered  by 
the  Eevolution  had  begun  to  spread  among  the  people , 
Pitt  sowed  in  Ireland  tlie  seeds  of  discord  and  blood- 
shed, of  religious  animosities,  and  social  disorgani- 
sation, which  paralysed  the  energies  of  the  country 
and  rendered  possible  the  success  of  his  machinations. 
The  rebellion  of  1798,  with  all  the  accumulated  mi- 
series it  entailed,  was  the  direct  and  predicted  conse- 
quence of  his  policy.  Lord  Fitzwilliam  had  solemnly 
warned  the  Government  that  to  disappoint  tlie  hopes  of 
the  Catholics  '  would  be  to  raise  a  flame  in  the  country 
that  nothing  but  the  force  of  arms  could  keep  down.' 
liord  Charlemont,  tliougli  on  principle  opposed  to  the 
Catholic  claims,  declared  that  the  recall  of  Lord  Fitz- 
william would  be  ruinous  to  Ireland,  and  foretold  that 
by  the  following  Christmas  the  people  might  be  in  the 
1  lands  of  the  United  Irishmen.  The  feelings  of  the 
nation  were  manifested  with  an  intensity  that  had  not 
been  displayed  since  1782.  The  shops  of  Dublin  were 
closed ;  votes  of  confidence  in  the  disgraced  Lord- 
Lieutenant  were  passed  unanimously  by  both  Houses 
of  Parliament,  by  most  of  the  corporations  in  tlie 
kingdom,  and  by  innumerable  county  meetings.  His 
carriage  was  dra^vn  to  the  water's  edge  by  an  enthu- 
siastic crowd,  while  a  violent  riot  marked  the  public 
entry  of  his  successor.  The  belief  in  the  possibility  of 
obtaining  reform  by  constitutional  means  speedily 
waned.  A  sullen,  menacing  disloyalty  overspread  the 
land,  'creeping,'  in  the  words  of  Grattan,  'like  the 
mist  at  the  heels  of  the  countryman.' 

It  was  natural,  and  indeed  inevitable,  that  it  should 
be  so.     A   large  amount  of  discontent  and    agitation 


148  IIENKY    GRATTAN. 

had  previously  existed,  and  it  would  bave  been  veiy 
straDge  bad  it  been  otherwise.  The  past  history  of 
the  country  was  not  of  a  nature  to  make  a  contented 
people.  The  great  armed  movement  of  the  A^olunteers 
was  stili  vivid  in  the  memories  of  men,  and  the  exclu- 
sion of  three-fourths  of  the  nation  from  the  higlicst 
privileges  of  the  constitution,  the  profoundly  corrupt 
condition  of  Parliament,  and  the  systematic  misappli- 
cation of  official  patronage,  were  most  legitimate  causes 
of  discontent.  Still  the  disloyalty  was  probably  less 
than  at  the  present  moment,  and  it  might  most  easily 
have  been  allayed.  Had  the  Government  thought 
fit  to  adopt  the  policy  of  Grattan — had  they  deter- 
mined '  to  combat  the  wild  spirit  of  democratic  liberty 
by  tlie  regulated  spirit  of  organised  liberty,  sucli  as 
may  be  found  in  a  limited  monarchy  with  a  free  Par- 
liament,' there  can  be  little  doubt  tliat  tliey  would 
liave  succeeded.  The  landlords,  the  Parliament,  the 
overwhelming  majority  of  the  Episcopalian  Protestants, 
tlie  Constitutional  Liberals  who  followed  Grattan  and 
Cliarlemont,  were  intensely  loyal.  The  priests  in  Ire- 
land, as  clsewliere,  looked  with  horror  upon  the  Re- 
volution, and  upon  the  doctrines  tliat  inspired  it.  The 
mass  of  the  Catholics  were,  no  doubt,  considerably  and 
most  naturally  discontented,  but  their  leaning  was 
strongly  towards  authority,  and  the  contagion  of  the 
disloyal  spirit  that  was  agitating  the  Presbyterians  of 
the  north  did  not  seriously  affect  them  till  tlie  recall 
of  Lord  Fitzwilliam.  On  this  point  we  have  the 
evidence  of  the  most  competent  of  witnesses  :  the  three 
leaders  of  the  L^nited  Irishmen,  whose  memoir  I  have 
before  cited.  '  Wliatever  progress  this  united  system 
had  made  among  the  Presbyterians  of  the  north,'  they 
say,  '  it  had,  as  we  apprehend,  made  but  little  way 
amongst  Catholics  tliroughout  the  kingdom,  until  after 


RECALL   OF   LORD    FITZTWILLIAM.  149 

the  recall  of  Lord  Fitz^villiara.'  The  conduct  of  the 
people  in  1782,  and  their  conduct  on  the  arrival  of 
Lord  Fitzwilliam,  attested  sufficiently  how  easily  all 
classes  might  have  been  rallied  round  the  throne,  and 
though  some  agitators  would  always  have  remained,  they 
would  have  been  reduced  to  impotence,  if  not  to  silence, 
by  Catholic  emancipation  and  a  moderate  measure  of 
Parliamentary  reform.  Considering  the  past  history 
of  the  country,  and  the  inflammatory  elements  that 
were  abroad  in  Europe,  Ireland  in  1795  was  singularly 
easy  to  govern,  had  it  been  governed  honestly  and  by 
honest  men.  But  it  was  not  in  human  nature  that 
the  loyalty  of  the  Catholics  should  survive  the  ad- 
ministration of  Lord  Fitzwilliam.  Their  hopes  had 
been  raised  to  the  highest  point;  the  language  and 
demeanour  of  the  representative  of  the  Sovereign  had 
Ijeen  equivalent  to  a  pledge  that  they  would  be  relieved 
of  their  disqualifications ;  they  could  point  with  pride 
to  their  perfect  loyalty  for  the  space  of  a  hundred  years, 
in  spite  of  the  penal  laws,  of  the  rebellions  of  1715  and 
of  1745,  and  of  the  revolt  of  the  colonies;  they  had 
won  to  their  cause  the  immense  majority  of  their  Pro- 
testant fellow-countrymen,  and  had  advanced  to  the 
very  threshold  of  the  constitution,  when  the  English 
^Minister  interposed  to  blight  their  prospects,  and  exerted 
all  the  influence  of  the  Government  against  them. 

It  has  been  suggested,  by  a  distinguished  modern 
apologist  for  Pitt,  that  it  would  perhaps  have  l)een 
impossible  to  carry  the  measure  through  the  Irish 
Parliament ;  or  that,  at  least,  it  could  only  have  been 
carried  after  a  prolonged  and  violent  conflict,  that 
would  have  shaken  the  nation  to  the  centre.  The  fact 
that  the  House  almost  unanimously  gave  permission 
for  the  Bill  to  be  brought  in  does  not,  it  is  truly  said, 
necessarily  imply  that  it  would  have  passed  it  in  its 


150  IIENKT    GEATTAN. 

more  advanced  stages ;  and  when,  soon  after,  the 
Government  opposed  the  Bill,  it  was  rejected  by  a 
large  majority.  The  answer  to  this  theory  is  very 
short.  No  Irish  writer  or  speaker  of  the  time  ques- 
tioned, as  far  as  I  am  aware,  the  power  of  the  Govern- 
ment to  carry  the  Bill.  The  weight  which  the  Ad- 
ministration possessed  through  the  borough  influence 
in  the  Irish  Parliament  was  almost  absolute.  In  a 
few  cases  a  strong  popular  feeling  was  able  to  defeat 
it,  but  in  no  case  had  the  Government  any  serious 
difficulty  when  the  popular  sentiment  was  on  their 
side.  That  the  general  feeling  of  the  people  was  in 
favour  of  emancipation  is  perfectly  unquestionable. 
Tliat  the  Parliament  would  readily  have  yielded  to 
that  feeling  is  decisively  proved  by  its  conduct  in 
1793.  The  Bill  carried  in  that  year,  which  conferred 
the  elective  franchise  on  the  Catholics,  was,  as  I  have 
said,  far  more  important  than  a  Bill  for  allowing 
them  to  sit  in  Parliament,  for  it  transferred  a  far 
larger  amount  of  real  political  power,  and  rendered 
the  Parliamentary  disqualification  utterly  untenable. 
The  Bill  of  1793  was  carried  without  difficulty  through 
Parliament,  and  there  is  not  a  shadow  of  a  reason  for 
believing  that  it  would  have  been  more  difficult  to 
carry  the  Emancipation  Bill  of  1795.  In  the  emphatic 
words  of  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  the  disqualifications  that 
were  retained  in  the  Act  of  1793  'gave  satisfaction  to 
none,  and  caused  discontent  to  many.  The  Protestants 
reo-arded  these  exceptions  with  total  indifference.  The 
Catholics  looked  on  them  as  signs  of  suspicion  and 
degradation.'  ^  There  may,  perhaps,  he  some  difficulty 
in  deciding  on  whose  head  the  blame  of  the  failure  of 
Lord  Fitzwilliam's  viceroyalty  should  rest ;  but  it  is 
at  least  very  clear  that  the  real  obstacle  to  Catholic 

'   Pi-u^'sf  ill  Vac  Uuv.^q  of  Lci-ils. 


RETIRES    FROM   TARLIAMEM.  151 

emancipation  was  not  in  Ireland,  but  in  England, 
Few  facts  in  Irish  history  are^  more  certain  than  that 
the  Irish  Parliament  would  have  carried  emancipation 
if  Lord  Fitzwilliam  ha  J  remained  in  power,  and  tiat 
the^recall  ofjthat  noblernan  w\as  one  of  the  chief  causes 
of  the  rebellion  of  1798.  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  on  his 
return,  demanded  in  the  House  of  Lords  explanations 
of  the  motive  of  his  recall,  and  was  supported  by  the 
Duke  of  Norfolk,  but  his  demand  was  refused.  He 
entered  a  protest  against  this  refusal,  in  which  he 
stated  that  he  found  Catholic  emancipation  to  be 
'  ardently  desired  by  the  Koman  Catholics,  to  be  asked 
for  by  very  many  Protestants,  and  to  be  cheerfully 
acquiesced  in  by  nearly  all.' 

After  this  event  the  days  of  the  Irish  Parliament 
were  but  few  and  evil.  Three  or  four  times  Grattan 
brought  forward  the  Catholic  and  the  lieform  ques- 
tions, but  the  Grovernment  continually  refused  to  yield, 
and  the  revolutionary  tide  surged  higher  and  higher. 
At  last,  on  the  eve  of  the  rebellion,  he  gave  up 
his  seat  in  Parliament,  and  retired  into  privat-e  life. 
He  had  found  it  wholly  impossible  to  cope  with  the 
Government  during  that  period  of  panic.  He  could 
not  sympathise  with  the  party  who  were  appealing  to 
arms,  nor  yet  w^ith  those  who  had  driven  them  to  dis- 
loyalty. He  was  guided,  too,  in  a  great  measure,  by 
the  example  of  Fox,  who,  when  he  found  his  party 
hopelessly  reduced,  had  retired  from  the  debates ;  but, 
vmlike  Fox,  he  resigned  his  seat  when  he  abstained 
from  parliamentary  business. 

If  it  were  not  for  the  wretched  condition  of  the 
country,  it  would  have  cost  him  comparatively  little  to 
retire  from  active  life  ;  for  he  possessed  all  the  re- 
sources of  happiness  that  are  furnished  by  a  highly  cul- 
tivated intellect,  by  tlic  most  amiable  of  dispositions, 


152  HEXRY   GR ATTAIN. 

and  the  attachment  of  innumerable  friends.  All 
accounts  concur  in  representing  }iim  in  private  life 
as  the  simplest  and  most  winning  of  mortals.  The 
transparent  purity  of  his  life  and  character,  a  most 
fascinating  mixture  of  vehemence  and  benevolence,  a 
certain  guilelessness  of  appearance,  and  a  certain  un- 
conscious oddity,  both  of  diction  and  gesture,  gave  a 
peculiar  charm  and  pungency  to  his  conversation. 
Like  his  speeches,  it  was  tesselated  with  epigram  and 
antithesis,  full  of  strokes  of  a  delicate,  original,  and 
laconic  humour,  of  curiously  minute  and  vivid  delinea- 
tions of  character,  of  striking  anecdotes,  admirably 
though  quaintly  told.  He  liad  seen  and  observed 
much,  and  he  possessed  a  rare  insight  into  character 
and  a  great  originality  botli  of  thought  and  of  expres- 
sion. He  delighted  in  music  and  poetry,  and  his  love 
of  nature  amaimted  to  a  passion,  and  continued  un- 
abated during  every  portion  of  his  life.  In  one  of  the 
letters  of  Horner  tliere  is  a  charming  description  of 
the  enthusiasm  with  which,  when  an  old  miui,  he  left 
London  to  visit  a  county  which  was  famous  for  its 
nightingales,  in  order  that  he  might  enjoy  the  luxury 
of  their  song.  There  was  about  him  so  much  gTcatness 
and  so  much  goodness,  that  lie  rarely  failed  to  vfin  the 
love  and  the  veneration  of  tliose  who  came  in  contact 
with  him,  but  also  so  mucli  oddity  that  he  usually 
provoked  a  smile.  With  much  mild  dignity  of  manner 
and  great  energy  of  intellect,  he  combined  an  almost 
childish  simplicity  and  freslmess  of  character.  No 
schoolboy  enjoyed  with  a  keener  zest  a  day's  holiday  in 
the  country ;  and  Curran,  who  delighted  in  mimicking 
his  singularities,  described  him  conducting  a  controversy 
about  the  respective  merits  of  two  pumps,  with  an 
intensity  of  earnestness  and  a  measured  gravity  worthy 
of  a   great  political   contest.     It  is  a  tine  saying  of 


CURHAN.  153 

Coleridge  tliat  in  men  of  genius  tlie  matured  judgment 
of  the  man  is  c(imbined  witli  the  delicacy  of  feeling 
and  the  susceptibility  of  impressions  of  tlie  child,  and 
it  needs  but  little  acquaintance  with  literary  biogi-aphy 
to  perceive  that  these  last  elements  almost  invariably 
enter  into  the  composition  of  really  great  men.  It 
is  scarcely  less  true  of  the  temple  of  genius  than  of 
tlie  temple  of  Christianity,  tliat  he  who  wo\ild  enter 
in  must  become  as  a  little  child. 

It  does  not  fall  within  the  province  of  the  present 
work  to  paint  the  rebellion  of  1798.  Public  opinion 
liad  but  little  scope  during  a  period  of  military  law 
and  of  mob  violence,  and  the  historians  of  the  two 
countries  may  well  let  the  curtain  fall  over  a  scene 
tliat  was  equally  disgraceful  to  both.  The_rnan  who 
at  that  time  occupied  the  first  position  in  the  public 
mind  was,  beyond  all  questjon,  Curran.  Seldom  has 
Ireland  produced  a  patriot  of  riioi-e  brilliant  and 
varied  talents ;  and  although  there  were  grave  defects 
in  his  private  character,  his  public  life  was  singu- 
larly luiblemished,  and  there  are  few  of  his  con- 
temporaries who  inspire  a  feeling  so  much  akin  to 
alfcetiun.  Rising  from  a  position  of  the  deepest 
humility,  he  early  attracted  public  attention  as  a  poet 
of  no  mean  promise — a  wit  of  almost  the  highest 
order — and  an  orator  who  might  compare  with  the 
greatest  of  his  countrymen.  If  his  speeches,  like 
those  of  most  lawyers,  are  somewhat  lax  and  inaccu- 
rate in  their  style  ;  if  they  do  not  exhibit  great  depth 
of  thought  or  great  force  c»f  reasoning,  they  are  charac- 
terised at  least  by  a  musical  flow  that  delights  even  in 
an  imperfect  and  uncorrected  report,  and  by  a  pov/er 
of  pathos,  of  imagination,  and  of  humour  that  was 
equalled  by  none  of  his  contemporaries.  A  member 
of  a  profession  where  all  ])romotion  depended  on  the 


154  TIENKY    GIIATTAN. 

Grovernmeut,  and  was  then  <;ivcn  from  political  mo- 
tives, he  was  never  guilty  of  abandoning  a  principle  or 
swerving  from  a  public  duty.  He  exhibited  the  most 
chivalrous  courage  in  one  of  the  worst  periods  of 
judicial  intimidation,  and  the  most  perfect  disin- 
terestedness in  one  of  the  worst  periods  of  judicial 
corruption.  At  the  very  beginning  of  his  career  he 
signalised  himself  by  volunteering  to  defend  an  old 
priest  who  had  been  maltreated  by  a  Protestant  noble- 
man, and  whose  cause  no  other  member  of  the  Bar  -was 
willing  to  adopt.  Lord  Clare  drove  him  from  the 
Court  of  Chancery  by  continual  evidences  of  dislike. 
Lord  Carleton  hinted  to  him  that  he  might  lose  his 
silk  gown  for  his  defence  of  the  United  Irishman 
Neilson.  During  one  of  his  speeches  he  was  interrupted 
by  the  clash  of  the  arms  of  an  angry  soldiery,  and 
more  than  once  he  had  to  dread  those  political  duels 
by  which  dullness  so  often  revenged  itself  upon  genius. 
In  his  famous  speech  for  Hamilton  Eowan  he  could 
adopt  almost  without  alteration  the  exordium  of  Cicero's 
defence  of  Milo,  but,  unlike  Cicero,  the  attempts  at 
intimidation  that  he  described  only  served  to  stimulate 
his  eloquence.  And  yet  this  man,  before  whose  sarcasm 
and  invective  corrupt  judges  and  perjured  witnesses  so 
often  trembled  ;  this  man,  on  whose  burning  eloquence 
crowded  and  sometimes  hostile  courts  hung  breathless 
with  admiration  till  the  shadows  of  evening  had  long- 
closed  in,  vfiis  in  private  life  the  most  affable,  the 
most  gentle,  the  most  unassuming  of  friends.  The 
briefless  barrister,  the  young  man  making  his  first 
essays  of  ambition,  the  bashful,  the  needy,  and  the 
disappointed,  ever  found  in  him  the  easiest  of  com- 
panions, and  acknowledged  with  delight  that  his  social 
qualities  were  as  fascinating  as  his  eloquence. 

Like  his  great   contemporary  Erskine,  he  never  ob- 


CURFvAN.  155 

tained  in  Parliament  a  position  corresponding  to  that 
which  he  held  at  the  Bar ;  but  his  Parliamentary  career, 
if  not  very  brilliant,  was  at  least  eminently  consistent 
and  disinterested.  He  made  his  maiden  speech  in 
favour  of  Flood's  Eeform  Bill,  and  he  took  part  in 
almost  every  subsequent  effort  to  purify  the  Parlia- 
ment, to  emancipate  the  Catholics,  to  reduce  the  pen- 
sions, to  ameliorate  the  criminal  code,  and  to  prevent 
the  introduction  of  military  law.  He  laboured  with 
especial  earnestness,  though  without  success,  to  assimi- 
late the  law  of  treason  in  Ireland  to  that  of  England, 
by  whicli  two  witnesses  were  necessary  for  a  capital 
conviction  ;  and  if  he  had  succeeded  he  would  have 
prevented  some  of  the  most  scandaloiLs  scenes  that  dis- 
graced tlie  subsequent  prosecutions.  In  all  the  great 
trials  of  '98  he  was  the  counsel  for  the  prisoners,  and 
his  eloquence  proved  fully  equal  to  the  occasion.  His 
iinest  effort  is  his  defence  of  Hamilton  Kowan,  which 
lias  been  styled  by  the  first  of  our  oratorical  critics  * 
the  most  eloquent  s|x?ech  ever  delivered  at  the  Bar,  but 
which  is  said  to  owe  a  great  deal  of  its  pre-eminence 
to  tlie  fact  tliat  it  was  better  reported  than  his  other 
speeches.  It  was  on  tliat  occasion  tliat  he  broke  into 
his  eloquent  and  well-known  justification  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  '  universal  emancij^ation,'  wliich  had  been 
asserted  by  the  United  Irishmen,  and  denounced  by 
the  Crown  officers  as  treasonable.  '  I  speak  in  the 
spirit  of  the  British  law,  which  makes  liberty  commen- 
surate with  and  inseparable  from  the  British  soil ; 
which  proclaims  even  to  the  stranger  and  the  sojourner, 
tlie  moment  he  sets  Ids  foot  on  Britisli  earth,  that  the 
ground  on  wliich  he  treads  is  holy  and  consecrated  by 
the  genius  of  universal  emancipation.  No  matter  in  I 
wliat  language  his  doom  may  have  been  pronounced — 

'  Lord  Eroiifrliani,  in  his  defence  of  Runt. 


156  HENET   GIIATTA5. 

no  matter  what  complexion,  incompatible  with  frcodon?, 
an  African  or  an  Indian  smi  may  have  burnt  upon  him 
— no  matter  in  what  disastrous  battle  liis  liberty  may 
have  been  cloven  down — no  matter  with  what  solemni- 
ties he  may  have  been  devoted  upon  the  altar  of  slavery 
— the  hrst  moment  he  touches  the  sacred  soil  of  Bri- 
tain the  altar  and  the  god  sink  together  in  the  dust ; 
his  soul  walks  abroad  in  its  own  majesty  ;  liis  body 
swells  beyond  the  measure  of  his  chains  that  burst 
from  around  him,  and  lie  stands  redeemed,  regenerated, 
and  disenthralled  by  the  irresistible  genius  of  \miversal 
emancipation.' 

The  rebellion  of  '98  was  at.  last  suppresseclj  and  tlto 
Ministers  determined  to  avail  themselves  of  the_oppaa:r 
tunity  to  annihilate  the  Irish  Parliament .  The  notion 
of  a  Union  had  been  more  than  once  propounded  in 
both  countries.  Cromwell  had  summoned  Irish  mem- 
bers to  the  Parliament  in  AVestminster.  jMany  eminent 
writers  had  advocated  a  Union — amon^:  others.  Sir  W. 
Petty,  Dean  Tucker,  and  Adam  >Smith  ;  and  about  the 
time  of  the  Union  with  Scotland  strong  efforts  were  made 
by  Irish  politicians  to  effect  it.  In  1703  there  was  a 
certain  movement  in  this  sense;  and  in  1709  the  Irisli 
House  of  Lords — though  apjmrently  without  the  con- 
currence of  the  House  of  Commons — petitioned  Lord 
AVharton,  the  Lord-Lieutenant,  to  use  his  good  offices  to 
procure  for  Ireland  a  Union  like  that  between  England 
and  Scotland.*  The  reply  of  the  Lord-Lieutenant,  how- 
ever, was  exceedingly  discouraging ;  and  from  this  time 
the  question  seems  to  have  slej^t  till  1759,  when  a  report 
w^as  current  that  such  a  measure  was  contcmj^lated ; 
and  so  unpopular  was  the  project,  that  the  Dublin  mob 
seized  a  number  of  tlie  members,  and  made  them  swear 
that   they  would  vote   against  it.     In   178G   we   hnd 

'  See  Lord  Mount morrcs'  '  Historical  Dissertation  on  tl:c  Irish  P;ir- 
liament,'  p.  47- 


rnEPARATIONS    FOR    THE    UNION.  157 

Cbarlemoiit  writing  to  Flood  :  '  Tlic  English  pupcra 
have  latL4y  been  infested  witli  the  idea  of  a  Union,  but 
except  from  them  I  know  nothing  of  it ;  neither  can  I 
suppose  it  possible  that  such  a  notion  can  have  entered 
into  the  heads  of  our  present  Administration.  When 
we  had  no  constitution  the  idea  was  scarcely  admis- 
sible ;  what,  then,  must  it  be  now?'  AVilberforce,  on 
one  occasion,  observed  tliat  it  w^ould  be  a  good  mea- 
sure, but  impracticable,  for  the  people  would  never 
consent.  Dr.  Johnson  said  to  an  Irish  gentleman,  '  Do 
not  unite  with  us  ;  we  would  unite  with  you  only  to  rob 
vou.'  The  Lord-Lieutenant  was  Lord  Cornwallis,  in 
whose  published  correspondence  we  can  trace  very 
clearly  the  progress  of  the  design  ;  but  the  principal 
agent  of  the  Government  in  corrupting  the  Legislature 
was  the  Chief  Secretary,  Lord  Castlcreagh.  In  the 
Xos'cmber  of  1798  we  lind  the  following  curious  notice 
of  this  appointment  in  one  of  Lord  Cornwallis's  letters 
to  the  Duke  of  Portland  :  '  Lord  Castlereagh's  appoint- 
ment gave  me  great  satisfaction;  and  although  I  admit 
the  propriety  of  the  general  rule,  yet,  as  lie  is  so  very 
unlike  an  Irishman,  I  think  he  has  a  great  claim  to  an 
exception  in  his  favour.'  In  the  same  montli  we  fmd 
Lord  Cabtlereagh  writing  to  Mr.  AVickham :  '  Tlie 
principal  provincial  newspapers  have  been  secured,  and 
every  attention  will  be  paid  to  (lie  press  generally.' 
The  public  were  prepared  by  a  pamphlet  in  favour  of 
a  Union  written  by  the  Secretary  Cooke,  which  elicited 
a  multitude  of  ansvvers,  tlie  ablest  being  those  of  Bushe 
and  Jebb.  Paniell  and  Fitzgerald,  who  refused  to 
acquiesce  in  the  designs  of  the  Government,  were  dis- 
missed from  office;  and  in  1799,  after  what  v;as  con- 
sidered a  s\ifficicnt  distribution  of  bribes  and  promises,^ 
the  measure  was  introduced. 

'  Tlie  following  notice  in  the  Cornwallis  Letters  concerning  Arch- 
bishop Agar  is  amusingly  cliarartci-istic.     It  is  in  a  letter  from  Lord 


158  HENRY   GRATTAN. 

The  period  was  in  many  respects  very  favourable  to 
the  attempt.  In  the  House  of  Lords  tliere  was  no 
serious  opposition  to  be  apprehended.  Peerages  in  Ire- 
hmd  had  long  been  granted  almost  exclusively  witli  a 
view  to  ensire  ministerial  influence,  and  Pitt  had  sur- 
passed all  his  predecessors  in  the  lavish  audacity  of  liis 
creations.  The  bishops,  who  were  absurdly  numerous 
in  proportion  to  their  flocks,  were,  with  two  exceptions, 
docile  and  obsequious ;  and  by  ennobling  most  borough- 
owners  who  consented  to  send  servile  members  to  the 
House  of  Commons,  the  Minister  was  able,  wuth  an 
economy  of  corruption,  to  degrade  two  Houses.  On  all 
ordinary  questions  he  could  secure  a  majority  in  the 

Cornwallis  to  the  Duke  of  Portlaiitl,  in  July  1707:  'It  "was  privately 
iiiiimatt'd  to  me  that  the  sentiments  of  the  Archbishop  of  Ca.shel  Avero 
less  unfriendly  to  tho  Union  than  they  had  been,  on  Avhich  I  took  an 
opportunity  of  conversing  with  his  Grace  on  the  subject,  and,  after  dis- 
cussing some  preliminary  topics  respecting  the  representation  of  the 
i'<[>iritual  Lords,  and  the  probable  vacanct/  of  the  sec  of  Dublin,  ho 
^Icclared  h's  great  unwillingness  at  all  times  to  op])Osc  tho  measures  of 
tho  Government,  and  especially  on  a  point  in  which  his  Majesty's  feel- 
ings were  so  much  interested,  to  whom  he  professed  the  highest  sense 
of  gratitude,  and  concluded  by  a  cordial  declaration  of  friendship.'  Dr. 
Agar  was  made  a  viscount  in  1800,  Archbishop  of  Dublin  in  1801,  and 
l-'arl  of  Normanton  a  few  years  later.  lie  tried  very  hanl  to  obtain  the 
Primacy  of  Ireland,  but  the  Government  refused  to  relax  their  rule  that 
no  Irishman  should  hold  that  place.  However,  Lord  Cornwallis  writes: 
*  His  Grace  had  my  promise  when  we  came  to  an  agreement  respecting 
the  Union  that  ho  should  have  a  seat  in  the  llouse  of  Lords  for  lifo' 
('Cornwallis  Correspondence,'  iii.  pp.  160-209).  Archbishop  Agar  was 
also  remarkable  fur  the  zeal  with  which  he  advocated  sanguinary  mea- 
sures of  repression  during  the  rebellion  of  1708  (Grattan's  Life,  a-oI.  iv. 
p.  390);  for  the  large  fortune  whieh  he  made  by  letting  the  Cliurch  lands 
on  terms  beneficial  to  his  own  famil}^  (' Cas'lereagli  Correspondence,' 
vol.  ii.  p.  71) ;  and  for  having  allowed  the  fine  old  chui-ch  at  Cashel  to  full 
into  ruins,  and  l)uilt  in  its  place  a  cathedral  in  the  worst  modern  taste, 
which  he  ordered  to  be  represented  on  his  tomb  (Stanley's  '  AVestminster 
Abbey,'  p.  3l»4).  There  is  an  extremely  eulogistic  inscription  to  hia 
nicmory  in  "Westminster  Abbey,  and  a  fine  bas-relief  representing  the 
angels  bearing  tlie  mitre  to  the  saintly  prelate. 


ARGUMENTS   FOR   A   UNION.  159 

Lower  House,  and  he  had  been  for  many  years  increas- 
ing the  number  of  placemen.     In  quiet  times  a  storm 
of  popular  indignation  would  have  made  a  Uoion  im- 
possible, but  at  the  time  when  the  measure  was  brought 
forward  the  country  was  prostrate  and  paralysed  after 
the  great  rebellion.     Resistance  was  impossible,  and 
there  was  much  to  predispose  men  to  a  Union.     The 
civil  war  which  the  policy  of  Pitt  had  produced  den-c- 
ncrated  in  Wexford,  and  in  part  of  the  south,  into  a 
merciless  struggle  of  races  and  creeds,   disgraced   on 
both  sides  by  t])e  most  atrocious  cruelties.     The  Pro- 
testants passed  into  that  condition  of  terrified  ferocity 
to  which  ruling  races  are  always  liable  when  they  find 
themselves  a  small  minority  in  the  midst  of  a  fierce 
rebellion.  /  '  Tlie  minds  of  the    people,'   wrote    Lord 
Cornwallis,  after  the  suppression  of  tlie  revolt,  'are 
now  in  such  a  state  that  nothing  but  blood  will  satisfy 
them.'     '  Even  at  my  table,  where  you  will  suppose  I 
do  all   I  can  to  prevent  it,   the  conversation   always 
turns  on  hanging,  shooting,  burning,  and  so  forth  ;  and 
if  a  priest  has  been  put  to  death  the  greatest  joy  is 
expressed  by  the  whole  comj)any.'     The  Catholics  were 
ef[ually  sanguinary.     A  prominent  rebel,  who  was  exe- 
cuted  on  Vinegar  Hill,  and   whose   confession  is  pre- 
served   in  the   '  Castlereagh   Correspondence,'  gives  a 
graphic  account  of  tlieir  proceedings  :  *  Every  man  that 
was  a  Protestant  was  called  an  Orangeman  ;  and  every 
one  was  to  be   killed,  from  the  poorest  man  in  the 
country.     Before  the  rebellion  I  never  heard  there  was 
any  hatred  between   Catholics  and  Protestants;  they 
always  lived  peaceably  together.     I  always  found  the 
l*rotestants  better  masters  and  more  indulgent  land- 
lords than    my  own    religion.      During  the  rebellion 
I  never  saw  any  one  interfere  to  prevent  murder  but 
one  liyrne,  who  saved  a  man.' 


IGO  HENRY    GHATTAN. 

Under  these  circumstances  it  would  not  have  been 
surprising  if  the  Protestants,  terrified  at  the  fierce  ele- 
ments that  were  surging  around  them,  should  have 
welcomed  any  political  combination  that,  by  identify- 
ing them  more  completely  with  a  powerful  Protestant 
nation,  miglit  increase  their  strength  ;  or  if  the  Catho- 
lics should  have  accepted  with  equal  delight  a  measure 
that  withdrew  them  from  the  immediate  tyranny  of 
their  enraged  fellow-countrymen.  But  beside  these 
considerations,  political  inducements  of  a  more  special 
kind  were  persistently  and  adroitly  employed.  One  of 
the  strongest  wishes  of  the  Irish  Catholics  was  natu- 
rally to  be  freed  from  tlieir  political  disqualifications. 
One  of  the  most  serious  objections  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Irish  Protestants  to  Catholic  emancipation  was  that  it 
might  prove  fatal  to  the  permanence  and  security  of 
the  Established  Church  in  Ireland.  The  Ministers  and 
the  ministerial  writers  argued  that  a  Union  would  lead 
to  the  immediate  consummation  of  the  vrislies  of  tlie 
Catholics,  and  tliat  it  Avould  at  tlie  same  time  place 
tlie  Establishment  beyond  all  possibility  of  danger. 
Catliolic  emancipation,  as  we  have  alread}^  seen,  had 
l)cen  looked  upon  very  favourably  by  the  Irish  Protes- 
tants ;  but  Pitt  having  suffered  Lord  Fitzwilliam  to 
amuse  the  Irisli  people  by  tlie  prospect,  had  blighted 
tlieir  hopes  by  recalling  him,  and  thus  produced  the 
rebellion.  Irish  opinion  had  greatly  deteriorated  under 
the  influence  of  the  events  that  followed,  and  sectarian 
animosity  was  much  stronger  in  1799  than  in  1795; 
but  still  the  passing  of  the  measure  depended  upon 
the  attitude  of  the  Government.  With  their  assistance 
it  was  Qixsy.  In  the  face  of  their  opposition,  and  with 
an  unreformed  Parliament,  it  was  impossible.  Being 
thus  the  practical  arbiters  of  the  question,  they  deter- 
mined to   employ  it  as  a   means   of  compelling   the 


NEGOTIATIONS  WITH   THE   CATHOLICS.  161 

Catholics  to  support  tlie  Union.     Pitt  himself—whose 
political  speculations  were   almost   always   large  and 
liberal— wished  to  give  Catholic  emancipation  with  the 
Union,  and  would  certainly  liave  done   so  if  he  could 
have  accomplislied  the  object  without  in  any  degree 
diminishing  or  endangering  his  political  ascendency. 
His   great  aim,   however,  was   not  to  emancipate  the 
Catholics,  but  to  make  them  believe  that  lie  was  going 
to   do  so,  and  thus  to    bribe    them   to    support   the 
Union.     The  enterprise  was  a  difficult  one,  for  Lord 
Clare  and  some  of   the  other  chief  advocates  of  the 
Union  were   very  hostile   to    the  Catholics  ;    and  the 
Minister  desired  to  enlist  in  his  support  all  the  anti- 
Catholic  elements  in  the  country.    The  plan,  therefore, 
of  coupling  the  Union  with  favours  to  the  Catholics 
Avas  abando'lied  ;  although  Pitt  wrote  to  Lord  Cornwallis 
in  November  1798,  that  i\Ir.  Elliot— who  was  one  of 
his  cliief  authorities  on  Irish  matters— thought  that  a 
Union,  accompanied  by  Catholic  emancipation,  ought 
to  be,  and  might  easily  be,  accomplished  ;  and  although 
Pitt  himself  noticed  at  the  same  time  that  all  the  Irish 
he  had  seen  were  in  favour  of  'a  provision  for  the 
Catholic  clergy,  and  of  some  arrangement  respecting 
tithes.'  ^      Another  co\irse  of  proceeding  was  resolved 
upon.     The    leading    Catholics   were    to    be   privately 
assured  that  though  Government  would  oppose  eman- 
cipation as  long  as  the  Irish  Parliament  existed,  they 
desired   to    carry  it   if  the   Union  was    effected.     In 
the  autumn  of  1799   Cornwallis  directed  Castlereagh 
to  infonn    the   English   Government    that  the  Union 
could   not  be  carried  if  the  Catholics  were  in  active 
opposition,   and  that  their  attitude  on    the    question 
depended  mainly  upon   their  hopes  of  emancipation. 
He  added  that  friends  of  the  Government  had  already 

Stanhope's  '  Life  of  Pitt,'  v.  1   iii.  p.  ICl. 


162  IlENTvY    GRATTAN. 

produced  a  favourable  impression  by  exciting  those 
hopes,  and  he  desired  to  know  how  far  he  might  pursue 
that  course.  A  Cabinet  Imving  been  hastily  summoned, 
Castlereagh  informed  him,  as  the  result,  that  the  Minis- 
ters who  composed  it  were  unanimously  in  favour  of  the 
principle  of  emancipation  ;  that  they  apprehended  con- 
siderable repugnance  to  the  measure  in  many  quarters, 
and  particularly  in  the  highest ;  that  they  declined 
to  give  an  express  promise,  partly  because  it  would 
embarrass  them  in  their  negotiations  with  the  Pro- 
testants, and  partly  because  it  was  not  right  that  such 
claims  should  be  made  a  matter  of  mere  bargain ;  but 
that,  as  far  as  the  sentiments  of  the  Cabinet  were 
concerned,  the  Lord-Lieutenant  was  fully  authorised  to 
solicit  the  Catholic  support.'  This  pretended  unani- 
mity, in  fact,  did  not  exist,  for  when  the  question 
was  formally  brought  forward  in  the  Cabinet  in  1801, 
it  appeared  that  no  less  than  five  of  its  members  were 
opposed  to  emancipation  ;  ^  but  of  this  the  Catholic 
leaders  could  know  nothing.  They  were  probably 
aware  that  the  King  was  hostile  to  emancipation,  but 
they  could  not  know  that  both  in  1795  and  1798  he 
had  distinctly  declared  that  his  objections  to  it  were  in- 
superable,' and  that  tlie  overtures  made  to  them  were 
made  with  a  perfect  knowledge  of  his  sentiments,  with- 
out any  attempt  to  learn  how  far  they  might  be  modi- 
lied,''  or  any  determination  to  exert  the  full  ministerial 

'  '  Corn  wall  is  Papers,'  vol.  iii.  p.  32G. 

2  Stanhopc'tJ  'Life  of  Pitt,'  vol.  iii.  p.  273. 

'  Sec  tlio  very  romarkaMc  papr  drawn  up  liy  the  King  in  179o,  in 
Canipbeirs  'Lives  of  the  Clianci'llors,*  vol.  viii.  pp.  173-17o;  and  his 
letter  to  Pitt  in  1798,  in  Stanhope's  '  Life  of  Pitt.'  iii.  Append,  xvi. 

*  It  is  charitable  to  suppose  that  Pitt  really  hoped  to  carry  emancipa- 
tion by  forcing  the  hand  of  the  King  after  the  Union  was  carried. 
Mr.  Adolphus.  who  had  much  private  information  of  the  proceedings  at 
cjurt,  sjy.s:^/Tho  assurance  was  given  to  the  Irish  C'athulics  Avitiiout 


THE   CnURCII    ESTABLISHMENT.  163 

power  in  their  favour.  They  only  knew  that  the  chief 
Irish  representatives  of  one  of  the  strongest  govern- 
ments that  ever  existed  in  England  represented  the 
Cabinet  as  unanimously  in  favour  of  emancipation, 
and  on  that  ground  solicited  their  support.  Govern- 
ment influence  alone  had  defeated  emancipation  in 
1795.  They  were  told  that  the  Government  objection 
to  it  would  be  obviated  by  a  Union,  and  they  inferred 
that  by  carrying  the  Union  they  were  carrying  their 
cause.  The  great  object  was  to  hold  out  hopes  suf- 
ficient to  secure  Catholic  support  or  neutrality  witliout 
committing  the  Government  to  a  distinct  pledge ;  and 
this  end  was  most  dexterously  accomplished.  A  few 
sentences  written  by  Lord  Castlereagh  in  1799  explain 
the  calculation  that  was  made.  '  The  Catholics,'  lie  says, 
'  if  offered  equality  without  a  Union,  will  probably  prefer 
it  to  equality  with  a  Union  ;  for  in  the  latter  case  they 
must  ever  be  content  with  inferiority,  in  the  former 
t]iey  would  probably  by  degrees  gain  ascendency.  .  .  . 
Were  the  Catholic  question  to  be  now  carried,  the  great 
argument  for  a  Union  would  be  lost,  at  least  as  far  as 
tJie  Catholics  are  concerned ;  it  seems,  therefore,  more 
important  than  ever  for  Government  to  resist  its  adoj>- 
tion,  on  the  ground  that  without  a  Union  it  must  be 
destructive  ;  ^vith  it,  tliat  it  may  be  safe.' ' 

While  this  powerful  inducement  was  offered  to  the 
Catholics,  another  and  almost  equally  strong  one  was 
offered  to  the  Protestants.  Both  Flood  and  Charle- 
mont,  as  I  liave  already  stated,  had  objected  to  Catholic 
emancipation  on  the  ground  that  it  would  lead  to  the 

tlie  King's  privity,  and  with  a  full  knowledge  of  his  sentiments  Tipon  iho 
suliject,  in  the  hope  that  his  Majesty,  ufter  tho  Union  iiad  taken  place, 
seeing  that  Catholic  emancipation  was  indispensable,  would  agree,  huw- 
evtT  reluctantly,  to  that  measure.' — Ilision/  of  Fv gland,  vol.  vi. 

'  '  Castlereagh  Correspondence,'  vol.  ii.  p.  1  ]().  There  are  other  pas* 
^agee  to  the  same  effect  in  the  Corrcspondeuce. 


164  HENRY    G RATTAN. 

diseslablisbmcnt  and  disondowment  of  tlic  Established 
Church,  and  tlio  advocates  of  Catholic  emancipation 
Iiad  always  rejected  the  prophecy  witli  indignation. 
By  the  Union  it  was  maintained  that  tlie  Church  would 
be  placed  in  absolute  security,  and  tliis  security  was 
one  of  the  special  grounds  upon  wliich  the  Protestants 
were  urged  to  support  it.  It  was  of  two  kinds.  The 
Act  of  Union  was  looked  upon  as  a  treaty  by  which 
the  Irish  Parliament  consented  on  certain  conditions 
to  surrender  its  separate  existence,  and  one  article  of 
that  Act,  inserted  by  the  desire  of  Arclibishop  Agar, 
stipulated  for  the  preservation  of  the  Establishment  as 
'  an  essential  and  fundamental  part  of  tlie  Union.' 
Besides  this,  the  Church  being  placed  under  the  pro- 
tection of  a  Legislature  w^hicli  was  likely  at  all  times 
to  remain  mainly  Protestant,  it  was  imagined  that  no 
serious  danger  could  menace  it.  The  stress  laid  upon 
these  considerations  by  tlie  Government  advocates  of 
the  Union  was  very  great.  'With  the  Union,'  WTote 
the  Secretary  Cooke,  '  Ireland  would  be  in  a  natural 
situation  ;  for,  all  the  Protestants  of  the  empire  being 
united,  she  Avoidd  liave  the  proportion  of  fourteen  to 
three  in  favour  of  her  Establishment,  whereas  at  present 
tliere  is  a  proportion  of  three  to  one  against  it.'  '  So 
long  as  the  separation  shall  continue,'  said  Castlercagh, 
'  the  Cluircli  of  Ireland  w^ill  ever  be  liable  to  be  im- 
peached upon  local  grounds.  Nor  will  it  be  able  to 
maintain  itself  eflfectually  against  tlie  argument  of 
physical  force.  But  when  once  completely  incorpo- 
rated with  the  Church  of  England,  it  will  be  placed 
upon  such  a  strong  and  natural  foundation  as  to  be 
above  all  apprehensions  and  alarms.' 

It  is  a  curious  enquiry  how  far  public  opinion  was 
influenced  by  these  considerations.  The  last  which  I 
have  mentioned  appears  t »  have  had   extremely  little 


ATTITUDE    OF    TROTESTANTS    AND    CATHOLIC.^.       165 

effect.  Clare,  Daigenan,  and  tlie  bishops,  it  is  true, 
were  ardent  advocates  of  the  Union,  but  it  appears 
tolerably  certain  that  no  considerable  section  of  Pro- 
testants of  any  class  outside  Parliament  concurred  in 
their  view.  Tlie  Orangemen  were  decidedly  hostile, 
and  tlie  utmost  that  could  be  obtained  of  them  was 
tliat  they  would  not  act  in  their  corporate  capacity  in 
opposition  to  it.  The  Established  Church  has  played  an 
important  part  in  the  history  of  the  Union,  but  it  was 
at  a  much  later  period.  The  conviction  that  repeal 
would  be  followed  by  disestablishment  was  one  of  the 
reasons  that  arrayed  tlie  great  majority  of  the  Protes- 
tants in  hostility  to  O'Connell,  and  the  connection 
between  the  two  measures  was  clearly  recognised. 
When  Lord  John  Russell  in  1835  was  endeavouring  to 
apply  a  very  small  part  of  the  Irish  Church  revenues 
to  secular  purposes,  INIr.  Gladstone,  in  a  speech  of  con- 
summate eloquence,  denounced  the  policy  of  the  Whig 
leader,  and  predicted  the  consequences  that  might 
flow  from  it.  '  The  noble  Lord  invited  them  to  invade 
the  i^roperty  of  the  Church  in  Ireland.  He  (Mr.  Glad- 
stone) considered  that  they  had  abundant  reasons  for 
maintaining  that  Church,  and  if  it  should  be  removed 
he  believed  that  they  would  not  be  long  able  to  resist 
the  repeal  of  the  L^nion.'' 

With  reference  to  the  Catholics,  however,  the  case 
is  somewhat  different.  Those  of  Dublin,  indeed,  took 
an  active  and  emphatic  part  against  the  Union,  and 
the  great  majority  of  them  throughout  the  country 
were  probably  either  hostile  or  indifferent  to  it.*  There 
was,  however,  imquestionably  a  real  and  considerable 

•  Iliinsrirvl,  Trd  ser.  vol.  xxvii.  p.  513. 

-  Sec  tlio  complaint  of  Lord  Cornwallis  (Jan.  31,  1800),  that  the 
Catliolics  wore  'joining  tlio  sfandanl  of  opix)sition.' — Cimxwallis  Corre* 
$pondincc. 


166  HENRY    GRATTAN. 

Catholic  party  in  its  favour,  guided  with  remarkable 
skill  and  energy  by  Troy,  the  Archbisliop  of  Dublin,  com- 
prising, among  other  prelates,  tlie  Archbishops  of  Tuam 
and  of  Cashel,*  and  favoured  by  an  important  section 
of  the  Catholic  aristocracy.  Corry,  the  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer,  the  most  violent  opponent  of  Grattan 
in  the  Union  debates,  won  his  seat  at  Newry  through 
the  unanimous  support  of  the  Catholic  voters.*  Con- 
sidered in  the  light  of  subsequent  history,  it  is  a 
curious  fact  tliat  the  Union  was  least  unpopular  in  the 
Province  of  Munster  and  in  the  towns  of  Cork  and 
Sligo,  and  that  some  of  the  Catholic  priests  were 
among  the  most  active  agents  in  procuring  signatures 
to  addresses  in  its  favour.^ 

It  is  scarcely  an  exaggeration  to  say  that  the  whole  un- 
bribed  intellect  of  Ireland  was  opposed  to  it.  Almost 
the  only  man  of  considerable  talent  in  the  jMinisterial 
ranks  was  Fitzgibbon,  who  held  the  office  of  Lord  Chan- 
cellor, and  had  obtained  the  Earldom  of  Clare.  He  was  a 
ready  and  powerful  debater,  and  a  man  of  great  per- 
sonal courage  and  force  of  character,  but  he  never  ap- 
pears to  have  been  suspected  even  by  his  friends  of  any 
patriotic  feelings,  his  intellect  was  narrow  and  in- 
tolerant, and  his  temper  ungovernably  violent.  He  had 
been  at  one  time  considered  a  Liberal,  and  owed  his 
promotion  in  a  great  degree  to  Grattan,  whom  he 
afterwards  attacked  with  the  utmost  virulence.  Like 
many  Irishmen  of  a  later  time,  he  had  the  habit  of 
constantly  depreciating  and  vilifying  his  country — '  our 
damnable  country,'  as  he  described  it  in  a  letter  to 
Lord  Castlereagh — and  he  w^as  a  bitter  enemy  of  the 
Catholics.     He  was   remarkable    for    an   arrogance    of 

'  See  the  '  Castlcrcngli  CoiTospoinlencc,'  vol.  ii,  pp.  344-313. 

2  Ibid.  p.  1G8. 

»  Ibid.  pp.  ?6,  328,  318,  349,  400. 


FITZGIEBON. 


167 


tone,  which  in  debate  is  said  sometimes  to  have  almost 
verged  upon  insanity,  and  for  the  reckless  manner  in 
whi'ch  he  displayed  his  personal  antipathies  upon  the 
Bench  ;  and  he  scandalised  the  Irish  Parliament  by  the 
perfect  frankness  with  which  he  justified  a  policy  of 
corruption,  and  the  English  House  of  Lords  by  his 
apology  for  the  use  of  torture  against  the  rebels  of 
1798^   Probably  no  Irishman  of  his  generation  was  so 
hated,  and  when  he  died  the  popular  delight  broke 
out  (as  it  afterwards  did  in  England  at  the  death  of 
Castlereagh)  in  a  kind  of  hideous  carnival  around  his 
coffin.     He  was,  however,  quite  capable   of  generous 
actions,   and   showed   on    one   or   two    occasions   real 
humanity  towards  State  prisoners  in  1798  ;  and  his  rare 
skill  in  stating  a  case,  and  his  indomitable  courage  in 
meeting  opposition,  made  him  extremely  useful  to  the 
INIinistry.     For  many  years  he  was  almost  absolute  in 
the  House  of  Lords,  and  after  Lord  Castlereagh  he  con- 
tributed most  to  passing  the  Union.      It  is,  however, 
curiously  illustrative  of  the  tortuous  skill  with  which 
the  Administration  of  Pitt  was  conducted,  that  Clare, 
when  apparently  the  very  leader  of  the  Ministerial 
party,  was  kept  in  complete  ignorance  of  the  secret 
overtures   that  were  made   to   the   Catholic  prelates, 
and  of  the  intentions  of  the   Minister  to  make  the 
Union  the  prelude  to  emancipation.^ 

The  Irish  Bar  was  at  this  time  peculiarly  rich  in 

1  Lord  nolland  says:  'Lord  Ilobart  aftcnvards  assured  mo  tliat 
both  ho  and  Lord  Clare  had  boon  deceived  by  Mr.  Pitt,  and  that  ho 
^.ould  have  voted  against  the  Union  had  he  suspected  at  the  time  that 
it  xvas  connected  ^.ith  any  project  of  extending  the  concessions  alrra-ly 
made  to  tlic  Irish  Catholics.  The  present  Lord  Clare  s  report  of  ns 
father's  views  of  the  vhole  matter  tallies  .vith  this  account  of  the 
transaction.'-3/-c;«ofrs  of  the  Whig  Tarty,  vol.  i.  p.  162.  Sec  too,  on 
the  indignation  of  Lord  Clare  at  what  he  called  the '  deception  that  was 
practised  on  him,  tho  '  Castlereagh  Correspondence,  vol.  iv.  pp.  47,  50. 


1G8  HENRY   C RATTAN. 

talent,  and  one  of  the  first  objects  of  tlie  Government 
was  to  corrupt  it.  To  a  certain  extent  the  lawyers  had 
undoubtedly  a  professional  interest  in  keeping  the 
Parliament  in  Dublin,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  all  pro- 
motions were  in  the  hands  of  the  Government,  and 
every  power  which  the  Government  possessed  was 
unscrupulously  strained.  It  was  certain,  beyond  all 
reasonable  doubt,  that  the  overwhelming  majority  of 
the  people  of  Ireland  were  opposed  to  the  destruction 
of  their  national  Parliament,  but  it  was  necessary  to 
create  some  semblance  of  popular  opinion  on  the  other 
side,  and  accordingly  Castlereagh  began  his  campaign 
by  drawing  5,000L  from  the  secret  service  fund, 
and  expended  tlie  greater  part  of  it  in  bribing  young 
lawyers  to  write  pamphlets  in  favour  of  a  Union.  The 
vehement  part  which  the  Chancellor  took  in  advocating 
the  Union  had  naturally  an  influence  upon  the  Bar. 
All  officials  who  held  any  office  under  Government 
were  rigorously  expelled  if  they  would  not  support  it, 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  crowds  of  unprincipled  and 
incompetent  men  were  promoted  to  higli  legal  honours 
for  defending  it.  The  immobility  of  the  judges  having 
been  conceded  shortly  after  the  emancipation  of  Par- 
liament, and  the  penal  laws  having  been  for  the  most 
part  abrogated,  there  was  every  reason  to  believe  that 
by  a  just  and  upright  policy  the  antipathy  to  law  which 
had  become  so  deeply  ingrained  in  the  Irish  character 
might  have  been  gradually  removed.  The  judicial  pro- 
motions that  followed  the  Union  directly  and  powerfully 
strengthened  it.  Lawless  men  are  not  likely  to  learn 
to  reverence  tlie  law  when  it  is  administered  by  officials 
whose  positions  are  notoriously  the  reward  of  their 
political  profligacy. 

The  conduct  of  the  Irish  lawyers  at  this  time  was  on 
^e  whole  eminently  noble.     In   spite  of  the   lavish 


DENUNCIATIONS    OF    TUB    TNION.  169 

corruption  of  the  Ministers,  tlie  great  body  remained 
firm  to  the  anti-Ministerial  side,  and  both  in  public 
meetings  and  in  Parliament  they  were  the  most  ardent 
opponents  of  the  Union,  'Sot  does  there  appear  in 
this  respect  to  have  been  any  considerable  difiference 
between  Whigs  and  Tories,  or  between  Protestants  and 
Catholics.  When  the  measure  was  first  propounded 
a  great  meeting  was  held  under  the  presidency  of 
Saurin,  one  of  the  ablest  of  the  Tory  lawyers,  and  was 
attended  by  all  the  leading  lawyers  of  all  sides,  and 
at  this  meeting  a  resolution  condemning  the  proposed 
Union  was  carried  by  1G6  to  32.  At  the  end  of  1803 
there  were  only  five  members  of  the  minority  who  had 
not  received  appointments  from  Government,  In  Par- 
liament the  speeches  of  Plunket  and  of  some  of  his 
legal  colleagues  were  masterpieces  of  powerful  reason- 
ing, and  should  be  studied  by  all  who  desire  to  know 
the  liglit  in  wliich  the  measure  appeared  to  some  of 
tlie  njost  disciplined  intellects  in  the  community.  It 
would,  indeed,  be  scarcely  possible  to  find  in  the  whole 
compass  of  Parliamentary  eloquence  speeches  breathing 
a  more  intense  bitterness.  '  I  will  make  bold  to  say,' 
said  Plunket,  '  that  licentious  and  impious  France,  in 
all  the  unrestrained  excess  which  anarchy  and  atheism 
liave  given  birth  to,  has  not  committed  a  more  insi- 
dious act  against  her  enemy  than  is  now  attempted  by 
the  professed  champion  of  the  cause  of  civilised  Europe 
against  her  friend  and  ally  in  the  time  of  her  calamity 
and  distress — at  the  moment  when  our  country  is  filled 
with  British  troops — when  the  loyal  men  of  Ireland 
are  fatigued  and  exhausted  by  their  efforts  to  subdue 
the  Ivebellion — efforts  in  which  they  had  succeeded 
before  those  troops  arrived — whilst  the  Habeas  Corpus 
Act  is  suspended — wliilst  trials  by  court-martial  are 
carrying  on  in  many  parts  of  tlie  liingdom — whilst  the 
9 


170  HENRY   GRATTAN. 

people  are  taught  to  think  they  have  no  right  to  meet 
or  deliberate,  and  whilst  the  great  body  of  them  are 
so  palsied  by  tlieir  fears  or  worn  down  by  their  ex- 
ertions that  even  this  vital  question  is  scarcely  able 
to  rouse  them  from  their  lethargy — at  a  moment  when 
we  are  distracted  by  domestic  dissensions — dissensions 
artfully  kept  alive  as  the  pretext  of  our  present  sub- 
jugation and  the  instrument  of  our  future  thraldom.' 
'For  centuries,'  said  Bushe,  'the  British  Parliament 
and  nation  kept  you  down,  shackled  your  commerce 
and  paralysed  your  exertions,  despised  your  characters 
and  ridiculed  your  pretensions  to  any  privileges,  com- 
mercial or  constitutional.  She  has  never  conceded  a 
point  to  you  which  she  could  avoid,  nor  granted  a 
favour  whicli  was  not  reluctantly  distilled.  They  have 
been  all  wrung  from  her  like  drops  of  blood,  and  you 
are  not  in  possession  of  a  single  blessing  (except  those 
which  you  derived  from  God)  that  has  not  been  either 
purchased  or  extorted  by  the  virtue  of  your  own  Par- 
liament from  the  illiberality  of  England.'  The  lan- 
guage of  Saurin  was  still  stronger.  '  If  a  legislative 
Union,'  he  said,  '  should  be  so  forced  upon  this  country 
against  the  will  of  its  inhabitants  it  would  be  a  nullity, 
and  resistance  to  it  would  be  a  struggle  against  usurp- 
ation, and  not  a  resistance  against  law.  You  may 
make  it  binding  as  a  law,  but  you  cannot  make  it 
obligatory  on  conscience.  It  will  b3  obeyed  as  long  as 
England  is  strong,  but  resistance  to  it  will  be  in  the 
abstract  a  duty,  and  the  exhibition  of  that  resistance 
will  be  a  mere  question  of  prudence.'  '  When  I  take 
into  account,'  said  Burrowes,  '  the  hostile  feelings  gene- 
rated by  this  foul  attempt,  by  bribery,  by  treason,  and 
by  force,  to  plunder  a  nation  of  its  liberties  in'the  hour 
of  its  distress,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  pronounce  that 
every   sentiment    of  affection  for   Great  Britain  will 


MEASURES    OF   EEFOIIM.  171 

perish  if  this  measure  pass,  and  that,  instead  of  uniting 
the  nations,  it  will  be  tlic  commencement  of  an  era  of 
inextinguishable  animosity.' 

The  combined  exertions  of  almost  all  the  men  of 
talent  and  of  almost  all  the  men  of  pure  patriotism 
in  the  Parliament  were  successful  in  1799.  Tho 
Government  Bill  was  defeated  by  109  to  104,  and  the 
illumination  of  Dublin  attested  the  feeling  of  the 
people.  Tlie  national  party  did  all  that  was  in  their 
power  to  secure  their  triumph,  for  they  foresaw  clearly 
that  tlie  struggle  would  be  renewed.  Ponsonby  brought 
forward  a  resolution  pledging  tlie  House  to  resist  every 
future  measure  involving  the  principle  it  had  con- 
demned, but  he  was  compelled  eventually  to  withdraw 
it.  ]Mr.  Dobus,  a  lawyer  of  some  talents  and  the  purest 
patriotism,  but  whose  influence  was  impaired  by  an 
extraordinary  monomania  on  the  subject  of  prophecy,' 
brought  forward  a  series  of  measures  for  the  purpose 
of  tranquillising  the  country,  comprising  Reform,  Catho- 
lic Emancipation,  and  the  payment  of  the  priests  ;  but 
the  Government  was  again  successful,  and  the  shadov/ 
of  the  coming  year  fell  darkly  on  every  patriotic  mind. 

These  gloomy  forebodings  were  soon  verified.  After  a 
series  of  measures  of  corruption  which  I  shall  presently 

'  lie  bflievcd  that  Armagh  is  Armageddon.  Tfcc  Irish,  it  appears, 
of  Amiagh  is  Armaceuddou  ;  c  and  ^  aro  interchangeable  letters,  and 
thus,  l»y  contraction,  we  fchould  have  Armageddon.  Armacead«lou 
means  the  hill  of  the  prophet;  and  some  'eminent  Hebrew  scholar' 
considered  that  Armageddon  meant  much  the  same.  Mr.  Dobbs  alt^o 
considered  that  the  '  vrhite  linen*  in  the  Apocalypse  alluded  to  the  linen 
trade  in  Ireland,  the  sea  of  glass  to  its  insular  position,  the  harps  borne 
by  tho  angels  to  its  national  arms,  and  that  the  Giant's  Causeway 
■was  the  Stone  of  Daniel.  Ho  wrote  two  books,  '  A  Short  View  of 
Prophecy'  and  'A  Universal  History,'  both  in  letters  to  his  son.  Un- 
like most  persons  who  indulge  in  tliosc  eccentric  opinions,  ho  was  as 
liberal  as  he  was  patriotic,  and  was  selecte<l  by  Grattan  to  carry  the 
resolutions  in  favour  of  the  repeal  of  tho  penal  laws  to  the  Volunteers 
at  Dungannon. 


172  HENRY    GIJATTAN. 

describe,  the  Union  was  again  introduced,  and  this 
time  "with  success.  Grattan  Avas  suffering  from  a  severe 
illness.  His  strength  was  completely  prostrated,  and 
he  was  not  in  a  lit  condition  for  the  most  moderate 
exertion,  far  less  for  a  great  political  contest.  In 
his  country's  extremity,  however,  it  was  not  fitting 
that  he  should  be  absent  from  her  councils,  and  he 
accordingly  procured  his  election  for  Wicklow,  and 
entered  the  House  during  the  debate.  He  wore  the 
uniform  of  the  Volunteers.  He  was  so  feeble  that  he 
could  only  walk  with  the  assistance  of  two  friends,  and 
his  head  hung  drooping  upon  his  chest,  but  an  \m- 
wonted  fire  sparkled  in  his  eye,  and  the  flush  of  deep 
emotion  mantled  his  cheek.  There  was  a  moment's 
pause,  an  electric  thrill  passed  through  the  House,  and 
then  a  long  wild  cheer  burst  from  the  galleries.  Shortly 
afterwards  he  rose  to  speak,  but  his  strength  failed 
him,  and  he  obtained  leave  to  address  the  House  sitting. 
Then  was  witnessed  that  spectacle,  among  the  grandest 
in  the  whole  range  of  mental  phenomena,  of  mind 
asserting  its  supremacy  over  matter — of  the  power  of 
enthusiasm  and  the  power  of  genius  nerving  a  feeble 
and  an  emaciated  framxC.  As  the  fire  of  oratory  kindled 
— as  the  angel  of  enthusiasm  touched  those  pallid  lips 
with  the  living  coal — as  the  old  scenes  crowded  on  the 
speaker's  mind,  and  the  old  plaudits  broke  upon  his 
ear,  it  seemed  as  though  the  force  of  disease  was  neu- 
tralised, and  the  buoyancy  of  youth  restored.  His  voice 
gained  a  deeper  power,  his  action  a  more  commanding 
energy,  his  eloquence  an  ever-increasing  brilliancy. 
For  more  than  two  hours  he  poured  forth  a  stream  of 
epigram,  of  argument,  and  of  appeal.  He  traversed 
almost  the  whole  of  that  complex  question — he  grappled 
with  the  various  arguments  of  expediency  the  Ministers 
had  urged ;  but  he  placed  the  issue  on  the  highest  of 


THE   UNION.  173 

grounds.  '  The  thing  lie  proposes  to  buy  is  what  can- 
not be  sold — liberty.'  AVhen  he  at  last  concluded,  it 
must  have  been  felt  by  all  his  friends  that  if  the  Irish 
Parliament  could  have  been  saved  by  eloquence  it 
would  have  been  saved  by  him.  He  had  been  for  ^ome 
time  vehemently  denounced  in  Parliament,  and  Corry 
now  attempted  to  crush  him  by  a  violent  attack. 
Grattan,  however,  treated  his  adversary  with  contemp- 
tuous silence  till  the  assault  had  been  three  times 
repeated,  when  he  terminated  the  contest  by  a  very 
brief  but  most  crushing  invective,  and  a  duel,  in  which 
Corry  was  wounded,  was  the  result. 

It  was  soon  evident,  however,  that  no  eloquence  and 
no  arguments  could  save  the  constitution  of  Ireland. 
In  division  after  division  Grattan  was  defeated,  and  he 
saw  with  an  ineffable  anguish  the  edifice  which  he  had 
done  so  much  to  construct  sinking  into  inevitable  dis- 
solution. Night  after  night  the  contest  was  vainly 
prolonged  with  a  feverish  and  impassioned  earnestness. 
Yet,  even  at  that  period,  hope  was  not  quite  ex- 
tinguished in  his  party.  They  saw  that  a  Union 
was  inevitable,  but  some,  at  least,  looked  beyond  it. 
'  I  know,'  said  Goold,  '  that  the  ^Ministers  must  suc- 
ceed ;  yet  I  will  not  go  away  with  an  aching  heart, 
because  I  know  that  the  liberties  of  the  people  must 
ultimately  triumph.  The  people  must  at  present 
submit,  because  they  cannot  resist  120,000  armed 
men  ;  but  the  period  will  occur  when,  as  in  1782, 
England  may  be  weak,  and  Ireland  sufficiently  strong 
to  recover  her  lost  liberties.'  Nor  were  the  last  words 
of  Grattan  devoid  of  hope :  '  The  constitution,'  he 
exclaimed,  '  may  for  a  time  be  lost,  but  the  character 
of  the  people  cannot  be  lost.  The  Ministers  of  the 
Crown  may  perhaps  at  length  find  out  that  it  is  not  so 
easy  to  put  down  for  ever  au  ancient  and  respectable 


174  HENRY    GKATTAN. 

nation  by  abilities,  however  great,  or  by  corruption, 
however  irresistible.  Liberty  may  repair  her  golden 
beams,  and  with  redoubled  lieat  animate  the  country. 
The  cry  of  loyalty  will  not  long  continue  against  the 
principles  of  liberty.  Loyalty  is  a  noble,  a  judicious, 
and  a  capacious  principle,  but  in  tliese  countries 
loyalty  distinct  from  liberty  is  corruption,  not  loyalty. 
The  cry  of  the  connection  will  not  in  the  end  avail 
against  the  principles  of  liberty.  Connection  is  a  wise 
and  a  profound  policy,  but  connection  witliout  an  Irish 
Parliament  is  connection  without  its  own  principle, 
without  analogy  of  condition,  without  the  pride  of 
lionour  that  should  attend  it — is  innovation,  is  peril, 
is  subjugation — not  connection.  .  .  .  Identification  is 
a  solid  and  imperial  maxim,  necessary  for  tlie  preserva- 
tion of  freedom,  necessary  for  that  of  empire  ;  bub 
without  union  of  hearts,  with  a  sej^arate  Government 
and  without  a  separate  Parliament,  identification  is 
extinction,  is  dishonour,  is  conquest — not  identifica- 
tion. Yet  I  do  not  give  up  my  country.  I  see  her  in 
;i  swoon,  but  she  is  not  dead.  Though  in  her  tomb 
slie  lies  helpless  and  motionless,  still  there  is  on  her 
lips  a  spirit  of  life,  and  on  her  cheek  a  glow  of  beauty  : 

Thou  :irt  not  conquered  :  Lcauty's  cnsijj^n  yet 
Is  crimson  in  thy  lips  and  in  thy  chocks, 
And  death's  pale  flag  is  not  advanced  tliere. 

While  a  plank  of  the  vessel  stands  together,  I  will  not 
leave  her.  Let  the  courtier  present  his  flimsy  sail, 
and  carry  the  liglit  bark  of  his  faith  with  every  new 
breath  of  wind ;  I  will  remain  anchored  here  with 
fidelity  to  the  fortunes  of  my  coimtry,  faithful  to  her 
freedom,  faithful  to  her  fall.'  These  w^re  the  last 
words  of  Grattan  in  the  Irish  Parliament. 

In  England,  Sheridan  resisted  the  measure  at  every 
step  of  its  i^rogress  with  j^ersevering  earnestness.     He 


THE   UNION.  175 

moved  that  its  consideration  should  be  delayed  till  the 
sentiments  of  the  people  of  Ireland  had  been  ascer- 
tained, but  his  motion  ^vas  defeated  by  30  to  206.  '  I 
would  have  fought  for  tliat  Irish  Parliament,'  he  after- 
wards exclaimed  to  Grattan — *  ay,  iip  to  the  knees  in 
blood ! '  Among  the  speakers  on  the  measure  in  tlie 
House  of  Lords  was  Lord  Byron,  who  described  it  as 
the  '  union  of  the  shark  with  its  prey.'  All  opposition, 
however,  was  fruitless,  and  the  Bill  received  the  royal 
assent  on  August  1. 

It  has  been  argued,  with  much  force,  and  in  perfect 
accordance  with  the  doctrines  of  the  great  political 
writers  of  the  seventeenth  century,  that  the  Irisli 
Parliament  was  constitutionally  incompetent  to  pass 
the  Union.  It  was  the  trustee,  not  the  possessor,  of 
the  legislative  power.  It  was  appointed  to  legislate, 
not  to  transfer  legislation — to  serve  the  people  for 
eight  years,  not  to  hand  over  the  people  to  another 
Legislature.  The  Act  was  in  principle  the  same  as  if 
the  Sovereign  of  England  were  to  transfer  her  autho- 
rity to  the  sovereign  of  another  nation.  It  transcended 
the  capacities  of  Parliament,  and  was  therefore  consti- 
tutionally a  usurpation.  '  The  Legislature,'  in  the  words 
of  Locke,  '  neither  must  nor  can  transfer  the  power  of 
making  laws  to  anybody  else,  or  place  it  anywhere  but 
where  the  people  have.' 

The  only  qualification  which  is  to  be  made  to  tliis 
doctrine  is  a  very  obvious  one.  Parliament  is  the 
trustee  of  the  nation,  but  the  nation  may  enlarge  its 
powers,  and  give  it  tlie  right  to  destroy  itself.  The 
essential  condition  of  the  constitutional  validity  of 
an  act  by  which  the  national  representatives  destroy 
the  national  representation  is  that  the  policy  of  that 
act  should  have  been  submitted  to  the  decision  of 
the.  constituents.     In    our    own  day,    no  considerable 


176  IZENKY    GRATTAN. 

innovation  in  politics,  no  matcriiil  modificition  in  tTie 
representative  system,  could  be  effected  wifhout  uucli 
a-n  appeal,  and  it  is  one  of  tlie  most  impo^-faiit  func- 
tions of  a  ^yell-organised  House  of  Lords  that  it 
delays  contemplated  changes  until  it  has  boon  made. 
But  the  Union,  whicli  swept  away  a  Parliaiuent  thatl 
had  existed  for  centuries,  and  had  recently  been  cman-  \ 
cipated  by  the  enthusiasm  of  the  entire  nation,  was  " 
carried  without  a  dissolution,  without  any  reference  to 
the  voice  of  the  people.  It  is  a  memorable  fact,  indi- 
cating the  power  of  the  Tory  reaction  whicli  followed 
the  French  Kevolution,  that  v/hen  Irish  T/Iberals  and 
English  Whig  statesmen  urged  that  a  qTiestion  of  this 
kind  ought  to  be  brought  before  the  nation  by  a  disso- 
lution, their  doctrine  was  again  and  again  denounced 
by  Pitt  as  tlie  most  palpable  and  most  flagrant 
Jacobinism.  The  Government  not  only  showed  no 
desire  to  consult  the  wishes  of  the  people,  but  it  even 
strenuously  laboured  to  separate  the  representatives 
from  their  influence.  '  It  seems,'  wrote  the  Duke  of 
Portland  to  Lord  Castlereagh  in  1799,  'as  if  the  cry  of 
Dublin  l)ad  carried  away  many  gentlemen  whose 
interests  in  all  respects  must  be  benefited  by  a 
Union  ;  and  I  have  seen  with  some  surprise,  as  well 
as  with  real  concern,  a  deference  expressed  for  the 
opinion  of  constituents  which  I  conceive  to  have  been 
as  unnecessary  as  it  is  entirely  imconstitutional.'  * 
'  The  clamour  out  of  doors,'  wrote  Lord  Cornwallis  in 
the  same  year,  '  is  chiefly  to  be  apprehended  as  fur- 
nishing the  members  -within  with  a  plausible  pretext 
for  acting  in  conformity  to  their  own  private  feelings.'  * 
If  the  people,  however,  were  not  to  influence  their 
rej^resentatives,  there  was   another  kind  of  influence 

'  ■*  Castlereagh  Correspondence,'  toI.  ii.  p.  1-iG. 
-  '  Coru-ftallis  Correspomk-nce,'  Jan.  1799. 


THE  UNION.  177 

about  which  do  scruples  were  entcrtaiucd.  It  is,  I 
believe,  a  simple  and  unexaggerated  statement  of  the 
truth,  that  in  the  entire  history  of  representative 
government  tliere  is  no  instance  of  corruption  having 
been  applied  on  so  large  a  scale,  and  with  so  audacious 
an  effrontery,  as  by  the  Ministers  in  Ireland.  The 
trustees  of  the  patronage  of  the  nation,  their  one 
object  was,  by  the  abuse  of  their  trust,  to  bribe  the 
representatives  to  sacrifice  their  constituents.  The 
constitution  of  Pailiament,  in  which  more  than  one- 
third  of  the  seats  were  nomination  boroughs,  and  a 
large  proportion  of  these  boroughs  in  four  or  five 
hands,  gave  them  fatal  facilities,  and  a  long  course  of 
adverse  influences  had  made  the  political  classes  in 
Ireland  profoundly  corrupt.  Lord  Cornwallis,  the 
Lord-Lieutenant — a  brave,  frank,  and  humane  soldier, 
who  was  sincerely  anxious  to  benefit  the  empire,  and 
who  retained  his  honourable  instincts  while  discharging 
a  most  dishonourable  office — felt  acutely  the  task  tliat 
was  confided  to  him,  and  in  one  of  his  letters  applied 
to  himself  with  remarkable  candour  the  lines  of  Swift : 

From  liell  ii  viceroy  devil  ascends, 
llis  budget  -vrith  corruption  crammed, 
The  contributions  of  the  damned, 
"Whicli  with  nn?paring  hand  he  strows 
Through  courts  and  Senate  as  he  goes. 

'  The  political  jobbery  of  this  country,'  he  writes, 
'  gets  the  better  of  me.  ...  I  trust  that  I  sliall  live 
to  get  out  of  this  most  cursed  of  all  situations,  and 
most  repugnant  to  my  feelings.  How  I  long  to  kick 
those  whom  my  public  duty  obliges  me  to  court ! ' 
'  jNIy  occupation  is  now  of  tlie  most  unpleasant  nature, 
negotiating  and  jobbing  with  the  most  corrupt  people 
imder  heaven.  I  despise  and  hate  myself  every  hour 
for  engaging  in  such  dirty  work,  and  am  supported 


178  HENRY    GII\TTAN. 

oiily   by   the  reflection   that   witliout   an    Union    tlie 
Bvitiirli  empire  must  be  dissolved.'  * 

Castlercagh,  liowever,  who  was  the  more  immediate 
agent  in  corrupting,  appears  to  have  performed  liis 
task  with  a  perfect  equanimity  ;  and  Pitt,  the  great 
contriver  and  organiser  of  the  whole,  preserved 
lln-oughout  that  tone  of  lofty  piety,  and  serene,  self- 
comj)lacent  virtue,  which  he  knew  so  well  how  to 
assume.  All  the  resources  of  ecclesiastical,  judicial, 
county,  and  other  patronage  were  strained  to  the 
utmost  to  find  places  for  those  w^ho  would  support  the 
Union,  or  to  provide  for  their  families  and  friends  ; 
and  when  these  did  not  suffice,  sinecures,  pensions, 
sums  from  the  secret  service  money,  were  lavishly  em- 
ployed. A  direct,  minute  system  of  corruption  was 
applied  to  every  individual  w^hose  constancy  was  not 
regarded  as  unassailable.  But  it  was  soon  found  that 
all  tliis  would  fail  unless  measures  of  a  more  sweeping 
kind  were  taken.  The  majority  of  the  landlord  class, 
in  whose  hands  the  county  representation  remained, 
w^ere  strongly  opposed  to  the  Union  ;  and  Castlereagh 
in  1799  complained  bitterly  of  'the  warmth  of  the 
country  gentlemen,  who  spoke  in  great  numbers  and 
with  much  energy  against  the  question ; '  ^  but  the 
county  seats  w^erc  immensely  outnumbered  by  the 
boroughs,  and  to  purchase  these  was  soon  found  to  bo 
necessary.  Adopting  a  plan  which  he  had  recom- 
mended in  1785  in  England,  Pitt  determined  to 
recognise  the  patronage  of  a  borough  as  a  form  of 
property,  and,  in  the  event  of  tlie  abolition  of  the 
Irish  Parliament,  to  compensate  the  patrons  at  the 
rate  of  7,500^.  a  seat.  A  million  and  a  quarter  was 
expended  cliiefly  in  this  manner,  and  the  selfish  in- 

'  Cornwallis  Correspondence,'  vol.  iii.  pp.  101,  102. 
-  '  C.ibtlereagh  Corrcspoiidein-c,'  vol.  ii.  p.  143. 


THE    UNION.  179 

terests  of  the  most  influential  classes  in  Ireland  passed 
to  tlie  side  of  the  Union,  while  further  compensation 
was  given  to  other  politicians  whose  interests  it  was 
believed  would  be  injuriously  afiTccted  by  the  measure. 

Tlie  precedent  of  1800  was  afterwards  remembered 
when  the  English  nomination  boroughs  were  abolished 
in  1832  ;  but  all  parties  indignantly  repudiated  the 
notion  of  recognising  such  a  principle  in  England. 
Another  mode  of  corruption  scarcely  less  efficacious 
was  employed  to  influence  the  wealthier  Irish  gentry. 
Peerages  to  this  class  are  always  a  peculiar  object  of 
ambition,  and  they  had  long  been  given  in  Ireland 
with  a  lavishness  which  materially  degraded  the  posi- 
tion. In  England,  the  simultaneous  creation  of  twelve 
peers  by  Harley  had  been  regarded  as  a  scandalous  and 
imprecedented  straining  of  the  prerogative;  but  no 
sooner  had  the  Union  been  carried  than  Lord  Corn- 
wallis  sent  to  England  the  names  of  sixteen  persons,  to 
whom  he  had  expressly  promised  Irish  peerages  as 
rewards  for  their  support  of  the  Union.  But  these 
])romotions  were  but  a  small  part  of  what  was  found 
necessary  ;  twenty-two  Irisli  peers  were  created,  five 
peers  received  English  peerages,  and  twenty  peers 
i-eceivcd  higher  titles. 

It  was  a  boast  of  Lord  Castlercagli  that,  wliatevcsr 
might  be  the  case  with  the  majority  of  the  Irish 
l)eople,  the  preponderance  of  landed  property  was  un- 
questionably on  the  side  of  the  supj-jorters  of  the 
Union.  In  making  this  calculation,  lie  took  into 
account  the  Irish  peers,  who  were  chiefly  subservient 
to  the  Government ;  the  bishops,  who  were  very 
wealthy,  and  who,  with  two  exceptions,  voted  for  the 
Union  ;  and  the  great  English  noblemen  who  possessed 
estates  in  Ireland:  but  he  also  maintained  that  the 
balance  of  property  in  the  Commons,  though  not  in 


180  IIENRY   GRATTAN. 

the  same  degree,  was  on  the  same  sideJ  Considering 
the  part  that  was  taken  by  the  county  members,  this 
last  calculation  seems  very  questionable,  but,  if  it  be 
true,  it  is  not  difficult  to  explain  it.  The  Ministers, 
by  money  or  by  dignities,  had  bought  almost  all  the 
great  borough-owners,  as  well  as  a  large  proportion  of 
the  members,  and  they  thus  made  their  success  certain. 
One  difficulty,  however,  still  remained.  It  was  found 
that  several  of  the  borough  members  were  not  prepared 
to  vote  for  the  Union,  although  their  patrons  had  been 
bought.  The  most  obvious  way  of  meeting  this  diffi- 
culty would  have  been  to  have  dissolved  Parliament, 
but  such  a  step  would  have  given  the  free  constituencies 
an  opportunity  of  testifying  their  abhorrence  of  the 
measure.  A  simpler  method  was  accordingly  adopted. 
A  place  Bill,  intended  to  guard  the  purity  of  Parlia- 
ment against  the  corruption  of  Ministers,  by  compelling 
all  who  accepted  office  to  vacate  their  seats,  had  been 
recently  passed,  and  the  Ministers  ingeniously  availed 
themselves  of  tliis  to  consummate  the  triumph  of  cor- 
ruption. According  to  the  code  of  honour  which  then 
prevailed  both  in  England  and  Ireland,  the  members 
of  nomination  boroughs  who  were  unwilling  to  vote  as 
their  patrons  directed  considered  themselves  bound  to 
accept  nominal  offices,  and  thus  vacate  their  seats, 
which  were  at  once  tilled  by  staunch  Unionists,  in 
some  instances  by  English  and  Scotch  men  vv'holly  un- 
connected with  Ireland. 

By  these  means  the  majority  was  formed  which  sold  • 
the  constitution  of  Ireland.  Lord  Cornwallis,  in  a  \ 
private  letter,  described  its  cliaractcr  with  perfect  ' 
frankness.  '  The  nearer  the  great  event  approaches,'  ; 
he  wrote,  'the  more  are  the  needy  and  interested 
senators  alarmed  at  the  effects  it  may  possibly  have  on 

*  '  Cornwallis  Correspoadeuco,'  vol.  iii.  p.  221. 


THE  UNION.  181 

their  interests  and  the  provision  for  tlitir  families,  and 
I  believe  that  half  of  our  majority  would  be  at  heart  as 
much  delighted  as  any  of  our  opponents  if  the  measure 
could  be  defeated.'  ^  G rattan,  who  had  unusual  oppor- 
tunities of  judging,  afterwards  expressed  his  opinion 
that,  of  the  members  who  voted  for  the  Union,  only 
seven  were  imbribed.* 

While  these  events  were  taking  place,  the  nation,  as 
I  have  said,  was  prostrated  and  exhausted  by  the 
Rebellion.  A  fierce  animosity  divided  the  Catholics 
and  Protestants ;  the  country  was  full  of  English 
troops ;  and  the  reign  of  martial  law,  as  well  as  the 
reaction  of  exaggerated  loyalty  that  always  follows 
insurrection,  made  men  more  than  commonly  timid 
in  opposing  tlie  Government.  A  considerable  pro- 
portion of  the  Catholic  priests  had  been  successfully 
bribed  by  the  hope  of  payment,  commutation  of 
tithes,  and  emancipation.  Their  flocks,  through  fear, 
influence,  or  resentment,  were  chiefly  passive,  and  the 
wealthiest  Protestant  i^roprietors  had  been  purchased 
by  peerages  or  places.  But,  notwithstanding  all  this, 
i- twenty-eight  countiet^,  twenty  of  tliem  being  unani- 
mous, pL'titioned  against  the  Union  ;  and  the  petitions 
against  it  are  said  to  have  liad  more  than  700,000 
signatures,  while  those  in  its  favour  had  only  7,000.^ 
Of  the  Irish  Parliament  itself,  Mr.  Grey,  in  the  English 
Jfouse  of  Commons,  gave  the  following  analysis: 
'There  are  300  members  in  all,  and  120  of  these 
strenuously  opposed  the  measure,  among  whom  were 
two-thirds  of  tlie  county  members,  the  representatives 
of  the  city  of  Dublin,  and  almost  all  the  towns  which 
it  is  proposed  shall  send  members  to  the  linperial 
Parliament:    1G2   voted  in  favour  of  the   Union;    of 

•  '  Corn'svallis  Correspondence,'  vol.  iii.  p.  228. 
'  Grattan's  Life,  vol.  v.  p.  113.         '  Ibid.  p.  51. 


182  HENRY   G RATTAN. 

these,  116  Tvcre  placemen.  Some  of  them  were 
English  generals  on  the  staff,  witliout  a  foot  of  ground 
in  Ireland,  and  completely  dependent  upon  Govern- 
ment.' '  In  the  case  of  Ireland,  as  truly  as  in  the  case 
of  Poland,  a  national  constitution  was  destroyed  by  a 
foreign  Power,  contrary  to  the  wishes  of  the  people.  In 
the  one  case,  the  deed  was  a  crime  of  violence  ;  in  the 
other,  it  was  a  crime  of  treachery  and  corruption.  In 
both  cases  a  legacy  of  enduring  bitterness  was  the  result. 
There  are,  indeed,  few  things  more  discreditable  to 
English  political  literature  than  the  tone  of  palliation, 
or  even  of  eulogy,  that  is  usually  adopted  towards  the 
autliors  of  this  transaction.  Scarcely  any  element  or 
aggravation  of  political  immorality  was  wanting,  and 
the  term  honour,  if  it  be  applied  to  such  men  as 
Castlereagli  or  Pitt,  ceases  to  have  any  real  meaning 
in  politics.  Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  abstract 
merits  of  the  arrangement,  the  Union,  as  it  was  car- 
ried, was  a  crime  of  the  deepest  turpitude— a  crime 
which,  by  imposing,  with  every  circumstance  of  in- 
famy, a  new  form  of  government  on  a  reluctant  and 
protesting  nation,  has  vitiated  the  whole  course  of  Irish 
opinion.  The  loyalty  of  a  nation  is  chiefly  due  to  the 
associations  formed  by  tlie  events  of  its  history,  but 
these  in  Ireland  liave  tended  with  a  melancholy  uni- 
formity in  the  opposite  direction.  I  have  already 
observed  how  the  three  greatest  English  rulers,  Eliza- 
beth, Cromwell,  and  William  III.,  are  associated  in 
Ireland  with  memories  of  disaster  and  humiliation, 
and  how  the  prostration  of  English  power  in  America 
produced  tJie  Irish  declaration  of  independence.  Flood 
desired  to  employ  the  Volunteer  movement  to  coerce 
the  Parliament  and  Grovernment  into  a  reform,  ])ut 
the  policy  of  Grattan  and  Cliarlemont  prevailed.     Tlic 

»  llansarJ,  vol.  xxxv.  y.  GO  (.Ajt.!  'J!,  1  SOO^. 


THE  UNION.  183 

Volunteers,  witli  a  signal  loyalty,  disbanded,  and  left 
the  question  of  reform  to  the  constitutional  forces 
of  the  nation.  The  result  was  that  the  prediction  of 
Flood  was  fully  verified  ;  tJie  corruption  of  Parliament 
was  carefully  maintained  and  aggravated,  and  it  was 
ultimately  made  the  means  of  destroying  tlie  consti- 
tution. The  danger  that  menaced  England  from 
France  in  1793  produced  the  concession  of  the  suffrage 
to  the  Catholics.  The  weakness  of  Ireland  after  tlie 
Rebellion  was  made  an  opportunity  of  depriving  her  of 
lier  Legislature.  Tlie  prospect  of  emancipation  and  of 
the  commutation  of  tithes  was  held  out  to  the  Ca- 
tholics, and  they,  for  the  most  part,  abstained  in  con- 
sequence from  actively  opposing  the  Union,  but  when 
the  measure  had  been  carried  Pitt  sacrificed  them 
with  little  more  than  a  show  of  reluctance  to  the 
King.  Eventually,  however,  the  Catholics  were  eman- 
cipated and  the  tithes  commuted,  but  tlie  first  mea- 
sure Avas  due  to  an  agitation  which  brought  the 
country  to  the  verge  of  civil  war,  and  tlie  second  was 
the  reward  of  almost  universal  rebellion  against  the 
law.  Thus,  generation  after  generation,  by  a  slow, 
steady,  and  fatal  j^rocess,  the  nation  has  been  educated 
into  disloyalty,  taught  to  look  with  distrust  upon  con- 
stitutional means  of  obtaining  its  ends,  and  accustomed 
to  regard  outrage  and  violence  as  the  invariable  preludes 
of  concession. 

That  the  Parliament  which  was  svrept  away  in  1800, 
and  the  political  classes  it  represented,  were  exceedingly 
corrupt  cannot  reasonably  be  questioned.  Almost  all 
the  honest  patriots  of  the  country  were,  I  believe,  on 
the  side  of  the  Opposition,  and  there  were  men  among 
them  who  would  have  done  honour  to  any  legislative 
assembly  ;  but  it  is  a  mere  delusion  to  regard  the  op- 
ponents of  the  Union  as  exclusively  or  mainly  actuated 


184  HENRY    GBATTAK. 

by  pure  patriotism.  Selfish  local  and  personal  motives 
contributed  largely  to  their  opposition,  and  they  also 
attempted  to  carry  their  ends  by  corruption.  When, 
however,  the  undoubted  venality  of  tlie  Parliament  ia 
urged  as  an  apology  for  the  Union,  an  Irish  -writer 
may  be  permitted  to  remind  his  readers  to  whom  that 
venality  is  to  be  ascribed — who  resisted  every  serious 
effort  of  reform.  The  corruption  of  the  Legislature  had 
been  made  a  main  function  of  the  Government,  and  it 
was  successfully  accomplished.  If,  however,  the  spec- 
tacle presented  by  the  majority  in  that  Legislature  in 
1800  was  eminently  despicable,  it  should  not  be  for 
gotten  that  there  is  no  other  instance  in  history  of 
such  extensive  corruption  being  applied  to  a  legislative 
body ;  that  in  the  first  year,  when  the  Union  was 
brought  forward.  Parliament  was  proof  against  tempt- 
ation ;  that  the  measure  was  ultimately  carried  by 
introducing  into  the  nomination  boroughs  new  mem- 
bers, in  some  instances  wholly  unconnected  with  Ire- 
land ;  and  that,  defective  as  the  constitution  of 
Parliament  undoubtedly  was,  it  is  extremely  question- 
able whether  the  Union  could  have  been  carried  had 
there  been  a  dissolution.  It  must  be  added,  too,  that 
the  corruption  of  the  House  of  Commons  was  not  so 
great  as  to  prevent  it  on  important  occasions  from 
yielding  to  the  wishes  of  the  people.  The  Irish  House 
of  Lords  was  a  perfectly  subservient  body ;  the  Irish 
House  of  Commons  never  was.  In  the  early  part  of  the 
eighteenth  century  the  refractory  element  in  it  wj'.s 
chieily  due  to  the  extreme  dislike  of  the  Irish  land- 
lords to  tithes,  while  the  English  interest  was  for  a 
long  space  of  time  directed  by  the  Primates  of  the 
Church.  Archbishop  Boulter  complains  bitterly  of  the 
opposition  he  had  on  this  ground  to  encounter,  and  of 
the   desire  of  the    Parliament    on    every  occasion    to 


CHARACTER   OF   THE   IRISH   rARLIAME>T.  18 J 

injure  the  Church.*  At  a  lat-er  period  the  Octennial 
Bill  was  forced  bj  public  opinion  on  a  very  reluctant 
Parliament,  and  Parlianaent  fully  reflected  tlie  national 
enthusiasm  in  1782.  In  Ireland,  as  in  England,  a  cer- 
tain proportion  of  tlie  borough-owners  were  patriotic, 
and  several  of  them  came  forward  prominently  in  sup- 
port of  the  Reform  Bill  of  Flood.'*  Parliamentary  re- 
form in  Ireland  would  undoubtedly  have  been  very 
difficult,  but,  liad  the  Parliament  continued,  it  would 
at  last  have  been  effected,  as  in  England,  by  the  in- 
fluence of  the  Government,  aided  by  the  defection  of 
some  of  tlie  borough-owners,  and  supported  by  an  over- 
whelming pressure  of  public  opinion.  The  Irish  Parlia- 
ment, tliough  very  corrupt  if  compared  with  the  British 
Parliament  at  the  end  of  the  last  century,  and  of  course 
still  more  w^th  that  of  our  own  day,  was  probably  not 
much  more  corrupt,  and  was  certainly  much  more  tole- 
rant, than  that  which  sat  in  London  in  the  early  years 
of  the  eighteenth  century.  It  was  guided  habitually 
by  sordid  motives,  but  it  not  un frequently  rose  above 
them ;  and  this  is  about  as  much  as  can  be  said  for 
not  a  few  of  the  Parliaments  of  England.  No  one  has 
stigmatised  the  Irish  Legislature  in  more  vehement 
terms  than  Lord  Macaulay,  but  he  could  hardly  apply 
to  it  stronger  terms  of  condemnation  than  he  applied 
to  the  Engli'ih  Parliament  of  Walpole,  '  who  governed 
by  corruption,  because  in  his  time  it  was  impossible  to 
govern  otherwise.'  '  A  lai-ge  proportion  of  the  mem- 
bers,' we  are  told,  'had  absolutely  no  motive  to  support 
any  Administration  except  their  own  interest,  in  the 
lowest  sense  of  the  word.  Under  these  circumstances, 
the  country  could  be  governed  only  by  corruption.  .  .  . 
We  might  as  well  accuse  the  poor  Ivowland  farmers, 

>  See  Bonltors  Lcttprs,  vd.  ii.  pp.  151,  217,  231-236. 
'  Grattau's  Life,  vol.  iii.  p.  123. 


186  IIEKKY    GRATTAN. 

who  paid  blackmail  to  Ixob  Eoy,  of  corraptin<^  the 
virtue  of  the  Highlanders,  as  accuse  Sir  R.  Walpole  of 
corrupting  the  virtue  of  Parliament.' 

But,  in  truth,  tlie  clouds  of  entlmsiasm  or  obloquy 
which  during  the  Repeal  contest  gathered  so  thickly 
around  this  portion  of  Irish  history,  make  it  even  now 
difficult  for  cither  English  or  Irish  writers  to  pronounce 
with  perfect  impartiality  on  the  merits  of  the  old  Par- 
liament of  Ireland.  The  time  may  come  when  the  histo- 
rians of  other  nations  may  review  its  history,  and  I  can- 
not but  think  that,  while  they  will  find  much  to  blame, 
they  will  find  in  its  later  years  at  least  something  to  ad- 
mire. In  estimating  the  character  of  a  Legislature,  we 
•sliould  consider  the  period  of  its  existence,  the  difficul- 
ties with  which  it  had  to  contend,  and  tlie  temptations 
to  which  it  was  exposed  ;  and  if  these  things  be  taken 
into  account,  the  Irish  I*arliament  will  not  be  wholly 
condemned.  Seldom  has  even  the  Imperial  Parliament 
exhibited  a  constellation  of  genius  more  brilliant,  more 
varied,  and  more  pure  than  that  which  is  suggested  by 
tlie  names  of  Grattan  and  Flood,  of  Curran,  Plunket, 
Hutchinson,  and  Burrowes.  Tliat  a  Legislature  so  defec- 
tive in  its  constitution  should  have  continued  to  exist 
is  indeed  wonderful,  but  it  is  far  more  wonderful  that 
it  should  have  achieved  what  it  did — that  it  should 
have  asserted  its  own  independence — that  it  should 
Iiave  riven  the  chains  that  fettered  its  trade — that  it 
should  have  removed  the  most  serious  disabilities 
under  which  the  mass  of  the  people  laboured — that  it 
should  have  voluntarily  given  up  the  monopoly  of 
power  it  possessed,  as  representing  the  Protestants 
alone.  With  every  inducement  to  religious  bigotry, 
it  carried  the  policy  of  toleration  in  many  respects 
much  farther  than  the  Parliament  of  England.  With 
every  inducement  to  disloyalty,  it  was  steadily  faithful 


CHAltACTEU  OF  THE  IHIS1I  tahliament.  187 

to  the  connection.  And  its  rcimUvti>,n  has  ^f'-'^f^^V 
its  fidelity,  for  the  bitter  invectives  of  t>>«  United 
Iri-^hman  Wolfe  Tone  have  been  reproduc.il  by  English 
writers  as  if  they  were  the  most  impartial  description 

of  its  merits.'  ,,.   .  ^      r 

'I  ar-ue  not,'  said  Giattan,  'like  the  Minister,  from 
the  misconduct  of  one  Parliament  against  the  being  of 
Parliament  itself.     I  value  that  Parliainentary  consti- 
tution by  the  average  of  its  benefits,  and  I  affirm  that 
the  blessings  procured  by  the  Irish  Parliament  in  the 
Ust  twenty  years  are  greater  than  the  blessings  afforded 
l,y  British  Parliaments  to  Ireland  for  the  last  century; 
Greater  even  than  the  mischiefs  inflicted  on  Ireland  by 
British  Parliaments;  greater  than  all  the  blessings  pro- 
cured  by  these   Parliaments   for   their   own   country 
within  that  period.     Within  that  time  the  Legislature 
of  England  lost   an  empire,  and   the  Legislature  of 
Ireland  recovered  a  constitution.'  ,   „    ,. 

Nor  should  it  be  omitted  that  the  Irish  Parliament 
was  on  the  whole  a  vigilant  and  intelligent  guardian  of 
the  material  interests  of  the  country.  During  the  greater 
part  of  the  century,  indeed,  it  had  little  power  except 
that  of  protesting  against  laws  crushing  Irish  commerce ; 
but  what  little  it  could  do  it  appears  to  have  done.     Its 
Journals  show  a  minute  attention  to  industrial  ques- 
tions, to  the  improvement  of  means  of  communication 
to  the  execution  of  public  works.     One  of  the  most 
important  events  in  English  industrial  history  m  the 
eio-hteentli  century   was  the  creation  of  a  system  of 
inland  navigation  by  means  of  canals  with  locks-an 

.  Tims  c  n.,  Maeaul.y,  in  his  v.ry  fine  speech  ■  on  the  state  of  IrehmJ' 
having  F»u/J  a  n,nUi,ade  of  fierce  epithets  on  the  ^^^;^;^:Z 

t  reptnfe  n>ay  be,  for  I  o,.l,j  repeat  the  language  of  Wolfe  lone. 


188  HENRY   G RATTAN. 

improvement  which  is  due  to  the  genius  of  tlie  engineer 
Brindley,  and  to  the  enterprise  of  tlie  Duke  of  Bridge- 
water.  The  first  canal  of  any  magnitude  in  England 
was  that  betw^een  Worsley  and  Manchester,  w^hich  was 
opened  in  1761.  The  experiment  was  practically  a. 
new  one,  for,  with  one  very  inconsiderable  exception, 
there  was  no  other  canal  in  England.  But  the  Irish 
Parliament  appears  to  have  immediately  perceived  the 
importance  of  the  enterprise,  and  the  energy  and  ala- 
crity with  whicli  it  undertook  to  provide  Ireland  with 
a  complete  system  of  internal  navigation  is  beyond  all 
praise.  In  1761  it  voted  a  sum  of  13,500/.  to  the  cor- 
porations of  several  inland  navigations,  and  made 
special  grants  for  a  canal  from  Dublin  to  the  Shannon, 
and  for  improving  tlie  navigation  of  the  Shannon,  Bar- 
row, and  Boyne.  Two  years  later  works  of  the  most 
extensive  kind  appear  to  have  been  undertaken. 
Among  the  votes  of  the  Irish  House  of  Commons  in 
1763  we  find  grants  for  the  construction  of  a  canal 
between  Dublin  and  the  Shannon  ;  for  a  canal  from 
Newry  to  Lough  Ncagh  ;  for  a  canal  connecting  Loch 
S willy  and  Loch  Foyle  ;  for  a  canal  which,  togetlicr 
with  improvements  on  the  river  Lagan,  w^as  intended 
to  complete  the  navigation  between  Loch  Neagh  and 
the  sea  at  Belfast ;  and  for  four  other  inland  naviga- 
tions by  canals.^  In  the  last  years  of  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment, or  at  all  events  from  the  concession  of  free  trade 
in  1779  to  the  Kebellion  of  1798,  the  material  progress 
of  Ireland  was  rapid  and  uninterrupted.  In  ten  years, 
from  1782,  the  exports  more  than  trebled.^  Lord  Shef- 
field, who  wrote  upon  Irish  commerce  in  1785,  said, 
'  At  present,  perhaps,  the  improvement  of  Ireland  is  as 
rapid    as    any   country  ever  experienced ; '    and   Lord 

'  jVIucphcrson's  '  Anntils  of  ComniPrcc,'  vol.  iii.  pp.  349-3S3. 
2  Sec  Grdttan'd  P^pccoli,  M.iy  IS,  IS  10. 


DANGERS   OF    A   SEPATIATE   LEGISLATURE.  189 

Clare,  in  a  pamphlet  which  appeared  in  1798,  made  a 
similar  assertion  with  much  greater  emphasis.  Speak- 
in-  of  the  period  that  had  elapsed  since  1782,  he  said, 
'  There  is  not  a  nation  in  the  habitable  globe  which 
has  advanced  in  cultivation  and  commerce,  in  agricul- 
ture and  manufactures,  with  the  same  rapidity  in  the 

same  period.' 

The  danf^ers  to  the  connection  wliich  have  been  sup- 
posed to  spHng  from  the  existence  of  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment  have  been  chiefly  illustrated  by  the  Eebellion 
of  1798   and  by  the  dissension  on  the  Regency  ques- 
tion.    The  former  may  be  very  rapidly  disposed  of; 
for  to   identify  it   in   any   degree  with  the  indepen- 
dence of  Parliament  is  to  manifest  a  complete  igno- 
rance of  the  facts  of  the  case.     The  Rebellion  of  '98 
was  produced  by  exceptional  causes-by  the  excite- 
ment consequent  upon  the  French  Revolution,  acting 
upon  the  excitement  consequent  on  the  recall  of  Lord 
Fitzwilliam.     It  was  not  represented  by  any  party  m 
Parliament.     Grattan,  who  was  the  leader  of  the  Irish 
Whios,  was  so  bitterly  opposed  to  everything  trench 
that  he  completely  separated  himself  on  French  ques- 
tions from  Fox  and  the  English  Whigs,  with  whom  he 
P-enerally  acted,  and  who  looked  with  favour  on  the 
Revolution.     He   once   went   so   far   as   to   speak   of 
'  eternal  friendship  with  France'  as  one  of  the  'curses 
to  which  Ireland  would  be  doomed  if  emancipation  were 
withheld.     On  the  other  hand,  perhaps,  no  one  ever 
hated  the  Parliament  more  than  the  United  Irishmen. 
The  people  rebelled,  not  because  there  was  an  organ  of 
public  opinion   in  the  land,  but  because  that  organ, 
while  unreformed,  did   not  sufficiently  represent  the 
national  feeling.     It  was  the  energetic  exertion  of  the 
Parliament  that  repressed   the  Rebellion  before  the 
arrival  of  the  English  troops ;  and  had  it  not  been  tor 


190  HENKT   G  RATTAN. 

its  prompt  and  decisive  action,  it  is  difficult  to  say 
how  far  the  movement  might  have  spread. 

The  difference  which  arose  between  the  English  and 
Irish  Parliaments  concerning  the  Regency  was  un- 
doubtedly a  very  serious  embarrassment ;  but  its  con- 
stitutional importance  has,  I  think,  been  greatly  exag- 
gerated. It  was  admitted  on  all  sides  that  the  Sove- 
reign possessed  the  same  plenitude  of  power  in  Ireland 
as  in  England,  but  the  question  which  arose  when  he 
had  been  incapacitated  by  insanity  was  absolutely 
novel  and  unprecedented.  It  had  been  foreseen  by  no 
statesman,  and  nothing  in  past  English  liistory  was  of 
any  real  assistance  in  solving  it.  The  English  Parlia- 
ment decided  that  the  authority  of  providing  for  the 
discharge  of  tlie  functions  of  royalty  reverted  to  Par- 
liament, which  had  a  right  to  impose  what  restrictions 
it  pleased  upon  the  Regent.  The  Irish  Parliament, 
adopting,  it  may  be  observed,  the  more  modest  view  of 
the  functions  of  Parliament — a  view  which  has  recently 
been  defended  by  the  high  authority  of  Lord  Campbell 
— maintained  that  in  an  hereditary  monarchy  tho 
eldest  son  of  the  Sovereign  has  the  same  absolute 
right  to  his  father's  place  during  the  incapacity,  as  lie 
would  have  after  the  death,  of  the  latter.  The  ditfer- 
cnce  was  no  doubt  perplexing,  and  for  a  time  danger- 
ous ;  but  it  was  extremely  easy  to  guard  against  the 
possibility  of  its  recurrence  by  a  special  law  providing 
that  whoever  exercised  the  power  of  Regent  de  facto 
in  England  should  exercise  a  similar  power  de  jure  in 
Ireland.  A  corresponding  legal  maxim  was  already 
recognised  in  the  case  of  the  Sovereign ;  tlicre  would 
have  been  no  real  difficulty  in  extending  it  to  the  case 
of  the  Regent,  and  a  resolution  to  that  effect  was  actu- 
ally brought  forward  by  the  anti-Union  party. 

If,  however,  we  consider  the    question  in  a  more 


DANGERS   OF    A   SEPARATE   LEGISLATURE.  191 

general  point  of  view,  it  must  be  admitted  that  a  col- 
lision between  two  independent  Legislatures  was  by  no 
means  an  unlikely  event ;  and  it  is  impossible  to  doubt 
that  in  that  case  the  connection  miglit  be  seriously 
endangered.  The  peril  from  this  source  was  real  and 
grave ;  and  it  appears  to  me  plain  that  for  tliis,  as  for 
other  reasons,  the  system  of  1782  must  eventually  have 
been  modified.  At  the  same  time  the  danger  has  been 
overrated ;  and  were  it  otherwise,  a  premature  Union 
unaccompanied  by  emancipation  was  not-the  proper  way 
of  averting  it.  A  very  similar  danger  exists  in  the  Bri- 
tish constitution  itself,  for  if  a  difference  arose  between 
its  three  constituent  elements,  in  which  each  obsti- 
nately refused  to  yield.  Government  might  be  brought 
to  a  dead  lock,  or  the  nation  to  a  revolution  or  a  v>-ar 
of  classes.  The  complexity  of  the  constitution  is  re- 
tained, not  because  such  a  catastrophe  is  impossible, 
but  because  it  is  believed  that  the  advantages  prepon- 
derate over  the  disadvantages — because,  although  imder 
certain  circumstances  that  complexity  might  create 
discord  and  revolution,  it  is  on  the  whole  admirably 
calculated  to  prevent  or  allay  them.  The  blended 
force  of  interest  and  patriotism  inspire  the  Sovereign, 
the  aristocracy,  and  the  Commons  with  the  spirit  of 
compromise,  which  is  essential  to  their  co-operation. 
It  is  not  true  that  independent  Legislatures  cannot  bo 
so  constituted  or  their  limits  of  action  so  defined  that 
Ihey  should  work  in  harmony.  The  Colonial  Legisla- 
tures in  the  British  empire  are  a  striking  proof  to  the 
contrary,  and  the  federal  principle  which  has  existed 
for  ages  in  the  only  flourishing  European  Republic,  and 
which  has  contributed  so  largely  to  the  wellbeing  of 
the  great  Kepublic  of  the  West,  has  of  late  years  been 
advancing  with  considerable  strides  through  monarch- 
ical Europe.     At  any  period  of  the  eighteenth  century 


192  IIENllY    GIJATTAN. 

England  might  easily  have  bound  the  Irisli  Legislature 
to  herself  by  ties  of  interest  of  overwhelming  force;  for 
by  the  concession  of  free  trade,  and  by  throwing  open  to 
Irishmen  the  great  careers  of  colonial  administration, 
she  could  have  made  the  connection  a  matter  of  vital 
importance  to  Ireland.  That  it  is  possible  for  reckless 
or  ignorant  agitators  to  disregard  such  considerations  of 
national  interest  is  but  too  true  ;  but  it  is  hardly  pos- 
sible that  they  could  fail  to  exercise  a  restraining  in- 
fluence upon  a  Parliament,  or  a  public  opinion,  which 
was  guided  by  the  property  and  the  intelligence  of 
the  country. 

But  in  truth  the  harmonious  co-operation  of  Ireland 
wdth  England  depends  much  less  upon  the  framework 
of  the  institutions  of  the  former  country  than  upon 
the  dispositions  of  its  people  and  upon  the  classes  who 
guide  its  political  life.  With  a  warm  and  loyal  attach- 
ment to  the  connection  pervading  tlie  nation,  the 
largest  amount  of  self-government  might  be  safely 
conceded,  and  the  most  defective  political  arrange- 
ments might  prove  innocuous.  This  is  the  true  cement 
of  nations,  and  no  change,  however  plausible  in  theory, 
can  be  really  advantageous  which  contributes  to  dimi- 
nish it.  Theorists  may  argue  that  it  would  be  better 
for  Ireland  to  become  in  eveiy  respect  a  mere  province 
of  England ;  they  may  contend  that  a  union  of  Legis- 
latures, accompanied  by  a  corresponding  fusion  of 
characters  and  identification  of  hopes,  interests,  and 
desires,  would  strengthen  the  empire,  but  as  a  matter 
of  fact  this  was  not  what  was  effected  in  1800.  The 
measure  of  Pitt  centralised,  but  it  did  not  unite,  or 
rather  by  uniting  the  Legislatures  it  divided  the 
nations.  In  a  country  where  the  sentiment  of  nation- 
ality was  as  intense  as. in  any  part  of  Europe,  it  de- 
stroyed  the     national    Legislature    contrary   to     the 


THE  UNION.  193 

manifest  wish  of  the  people,  and  by  means  so  corrupt,  ( 
treacherous,  and  shameful  tliat  they  are  never  likely  to  \ 
be  forgotten.  In  a  countiy  wliere,  owing  to  the  religious 
differences,  it  was  peculiarly  necessary  that  a  vigorous 
lay  public  opinion  should  be  fostered  to  dilute  or 
restrain  the  sectarian  spirit,  it  suppressed  the  centre 
and  organ  of  political  life,  directed  the  energies  of  the 
community  into  the  cliannels  of  sectarianism,  drove  its 
humours  inwards,^  and  thus  began  a  perversion  of  public 
opinion  which  has  almost  destroyed  the  elements  of 
political  progress.  In  a  country  where  the  people  have 
always  been  singularly  destitute  of  self-reliance,  and 
at  the  same  time  eminently  faithful  to  their  leaders,  it 
withdrew  the  guidance  of  affairs  from  the  hands  of 
the  resident  gentry,  and,  by  breaking  their  power,  pre- 
pared the  ascendency  of  the  demagogue  or  the  rebel. 
In  two  plain  ways  it  was  dangerous  to  the  connection  • 
it  incalculably  increased  the  aggregate  disloyalty  of 
the  people,  and  it  destroyed  the  political  supremacy  of 
the  class  that  is  most  attached  to  the  connection.  The 
Irish  Parliament,  with  all  its  faults,  was  an  eminently 
loyal  body.  The  Irish  people  through  the  eighteenth 
century,  in  spite  of  great  provocations,  were  on  the 
whole  a  loyal  people  till  the  recall  of  Lord  Fitzwilliam, 
and  even  then  a  few  very  moderate  measures  of  reform 
might  have  reclaimed  them.  Burke,  in  his  '  Letters 
on  a  Regicide  Peace,'  when  reviewing  the  elements 
of  strength  on  which  England  could  confide  in  her 
struggle  with  revolutionary  France,  placed  in  the  very 
first  rank  the  co-operation  of  Ireland.  At  the  present 
day  it  is  to  be  feared  that  most  impartial  men  would 

•  '  To  give  moderate  liberty  for  griefs  and  discontentments  to  evapo- 
rate ...  is  a  safe  way  ;  for  he  that  turneth  the  humours  back,  and 
niaketh  llio  M-ound  bleed  inwards,  endangcrcth  malign  ulcers  and  per- 
nicious impo&tliumations  ' — Bacon,  On  Scdiiiuns. 

10 


194  irENRY   G  RATTAN. 

re^^^ard  Ireland  in  the  event  of  a  great  European  war 
rather  as  a  source  of  weakness  than  of  strength.  More 
than  seventy  years  have  passed  since  the  boasted  mea- 
sure of  Pitt,  and  it  is  unfortunately  incontestable  that 
the  lower  orders  in  Ireland  are  as  hostile  to  the  system 
of  government  under  which  they  live  as  the  Hungarian 
people  have  ever  been  to  Austrian  or  the  Roman  people 
to  Papal  rule ;  that  Irish  disloyalty  is  multiplying 
enemies  of  England  wherever  the  English  tongue  is 
spoken  ;  and  that  the  national  sentiment  runs  so  strongly 
that  multitudes  of  Irish  Catholics  look  back  w^ith  deep 
affection  to  the  Irish  Parliament,  although  no  Catholic 
could  sit  within  its  walls,  and  although  it  was  only 
during  the  last  seven  years  of  its  independent  existence 
til  at  Catholics  could  vote  for  its  members.  Among  the 
opponents  of  the  Union  were  many  of  the  most  loyal 
as  well  as  nearly  all  the  ablest  men  in  Ireland ;  and 
Lord  Charlemont,  who  died  shortly  before  the  measure 
was  consummated,  summed  up  the  feelings  of  many  in 
the  emphatic  sentence  witli  which  he  protested  against. 
it.  '  It  would  more  than  any  other  measure,'  he  said, 
'contribute  to  the  separation  of  two  coimtries,  the 
perpetual  connection  of  w^hich  is  one  of  the  warmest 
wishes  of  my  heart.' 

In  fact  the  Union  of  1800  was  not  only  a  great 
crime,  but  was  also,  like  most  crimes,  a  great  blunder. 
The  manner  in  which  it  w^as  carried  w^as  not  only 
morally  scandalous ;  it  also  entirely  vitiated  it  as  -a 
work  of  statesmanship.  No  great  political  measure 
can  be  rationally  judged  merely  upon  its  abstract 
merits,  and  without  considering  the  character  and  the 
wishes  of  the  people  for  whom  it  is  intended.  It  is 
now  idle  to  discuss  what  might  have  been  the  effect  of 
a  Union  if  it  had  been  carried  before  1782,  when 
the  Parliament  was  still  imemancipated ;  if  it  had  been 


THE   UNION. 


195 


the  result  of  a  spontaneous  movement  of  public  opi- 
nion ;  if  it  had  been  accompanied  by  the  emancipation 
of  the  Catholics.     Carried  as  it  was  prematurely,  in 
defiance  of  the  national  sentiment  of  the  people  and 
of  the  protests  of  the  unbribed  talent  of  the  country, 
it  has  deranged  the  whole  course  of  political  develop- 
ment, driven  a  large  proportion  of  the  people  into 
sullen  disloyalty,  and  almost  destroyed  healthy  public 
opinion.     In   comparing   the   abundance   of  political 
talent  in    Ireland  during  the  last   century  with   the 
striking  absence  of  it  at  present,  something  no  doubt 
may  be  attributed  to  the  absence  of  protection  for  lite- 
rary property  in  Ireland  in  the  former  period,  which 
may   have   directed    an    unusual    proportion    of    the 
national  talent  to  politics,  and  something  to  the  Colo- 
nial and  Indian  careers  which  have  of  late  years  been 
thrown  open  to  competition  ;  but  when  alb  due  allow- 
ance has  been  made  for  these,  the  contrast  is  sufficiently 
impressive.     Few  impartial  men  can   doubt  that  the 
tone  of  political  life  and  the  standard  of  political  talent 
liave  been  lowered,  while  sectarian  animosity  has  been 
greatly  increased,   and  the   extent   to   which   Fenian 
principles  have  permeated  the  people  is  a  melancholy 
comment  upon  the  prophecies  that  tlie  Union  would 
put  an  end  to  disloyalty  in  Ireland. 

While,  however,  the  Irish  policy  of  Pitt  appears  to 
me  to  be  both  morally  and  politically  deserving  of 
almost  unmitigated  condenmation,  I  cannot  agree  with 
those  who  believe  that  the  arrangement  of  1782  could 
have  been  permanent.  The  Irish  Parliament  would 
doubtless  have  been  in  time  reformed,  but  it  would 
have  soon  found  its  situation  intolerable.  Imperial 
policy  must  necessarily  have  been  settled  by  the 
Imperial  Parliament  in  which  Ireland  had  no  voice ; 
and,  unlike  Canada  or  Australia,  Ireland  is  profoundly 


lyU  HENRY    (in  ATT  AN. 

iffected  by  every  cliange  of  Imperial  policy.  Connec- 
tion with  England  was  of  overwhelming  importance 
:o  the  lesser  country,  while  the  tie  uniting  them  w^ould 
lave  been  found  degi-ading  by  one  nation  and  incon- 
^^enient  to  the  other.  Under  such  circumstances  ji 
Union  of  some  kind  was  inevitable.  It  was  simply  a 
question  of  time,  and  it  must  some  day  have  been 
iemanded  by  Irish  opinion.  At  the  same  time  it  would 
lot,  I  think,  have  been  such  a  Union  as  that  of  1800. 
riie  conditions  of  Irish  and  English  politics  are  so 
3xtremely  different,  and  the  reasons  for  preserving  in 
Freland  a  local  centre  of  political  life  are  so  pow^erful, 
tliat  it  is  probable  a  federal  Union  would  have  been 
preferred.  Under  such  a  system  the.  Irish  Parliament 
would  liave  continued  to  exist,  but  would  have  been 
restricted  to  purely  local  subjects,  while  an  Imperial 
Parliament,  in  which  Irish  representatives  sat,  would 
have  directed  the  policy  of  the  empire. 

It  remains  only  to  add  a  few  words  upon  the  manner 
in  which  the  Ministers  observed  their  pledges  to  the 
Catliolics.  After  the  deadly  injury  which  had  been 
done  tliem  by  the  recall  of  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  it  might 
have  been  supposed  that  a  statesman  of  common  up- 
rightness would  have  been  peculiarly  anxious  that  they 
should  have  no  furtlier  ground  of  complaint.  Lord 
Cornwallis  and  Lord  Castlereagh,  as  the  representatives 
of  the  Grovernment,  had  purchased  the  support  of  the 
leading  Catholic  prelates  by  a  distinct  intimation  that 
in  their  opinion  the  Union  would  be  a  prelude  to  eman- 
cipation. Without  giving  any  express  promise  whicli 
could  impede  the  Union  negotiations,  they  had  excited 
their  hopes  by  assuring  them  that  the  Ministers  were 
sincerely  and  unanimously  in  favour  of  the  principle  of 
Emancipation,  and  on  the  faith  of  that  assurance  they 
had  solicited  and  obtained  a  most  important  service. 


TUE   CATHOLIC   QUESTION.  197 

The  great  body  of  the  Catholics  had  been  induced  to  ^ 
remain  passive ;  and  if  tlie  Catholics  had  been  in  active 
opposition,  the  Union,  in  the  opinion  of  Lord  Castle-J 
reagh,  could  not  have  been  carried.   Whatever  might  be 
the  exact  terms  of  the  intimation  made  to  the  Catholic 
leaders,  no  statesman  with  a  high  sense  of  honour  could 
question  that  the  Cabinet  were  bound  to  do  the  very 
utmost  in  their  power  to  carry  emancipation.    It  was  an 
obligation  of  honour  of  the  plainest  kind,  and  it  was 
also^'a  matter  of  policy  of  the  most  vital  importance. 
The  Union,  carried  as  it  was,  outraged  every  patriotic 
and  national  sentiment  in  the  country ;  and  if  it  was 
not  to  be  a  source  of  the  most  perennial  bitterness,  it 
was  absolutely  necessary  that  it  should  be  accompanied 
or   speedily   followed   by   some   great   national   boon, 
which  might  at  least  make  some  class  of  Irishmen  look 
back  on  it  with  satisfaction.     The  Scotch  Union  had 
thrown  open  to  Scotchmen  the  whole  trade  with  the 
English    Colonies   in  America,  from  which  they  had 
before  been  excluded,  but  this  trade  had  been  thrown 
open  to  Irishmen  in  1779.    Free  trade  between  England 
and  Ireland  was  indeed  established  by  the  Union ;  but 
this  advantage,  though  a  very  important  one,  was  not 
sufficiently  great  or  sufficiently  calculated  to  strike  the 
imagination  to  counteract  its    evil   effects.     Catholic 
emancipation  alone  could  have  the  required  effect,  and 
on  the  conduct  of  the  ISIinisters  at  this  momentous 
juncture  it  depended  whether  the  Catholics  were  to  be 
permanently  loyal.      Duped  and  injured  as  they  had 
been  in  1795,  their  loyalty  was  not  likely  to  bear  the 
strain  of  a  second  disappointment. 

It  seemed  at  first  as  though  tbe  Government  would 
do  everything  that  could  be  expected.  In  the  first 
King's  Speech  after  the  Union,  the  Sovereign  was 
made  to  describe  it  as  the  happiest  event  of  his  reign  ; 


198  HENRY    G  RATTAN. 

*  being*  persuaded,'  as  the  Speech  continued,  '  that 
nothing  could  so  effectually  contribute  to  extend  to 
my  Irish  subjects  the  full  participation  of  the  blessings 
derived  from  the  British  constitution.'  It  is  not  very 
clear  what  meaning  these  expressions  conveyed  to  the 
Sovereign  who  used  them  ;  but  the  Catholic  leaders 
naturally  read  them  in  the  light  of  the  negotiations 
that  had  taken  place,  and  as  naturally  interpreted 
them  as  a  promise  of  emancipation.  They  assumed 
that  the  Catholics,  who  constituted  three-quarters  of 
the  Irish  people,  were  included  under  the  denomina- 
tion of  '  Irish  subjects,'  and  that  the  right  of  sitting  in 
Parliament  was  one  of  the  blessings  of  the  constitu- 
tion. It  soon,  however,  appeared  that  the  King  was 
vehemently  opposed  to  emancipation ;  and  the  Chan- 
cellor, Lord  Loughborough,  through  selfish,  and  tlie 
Primates  of  England  and  Ireland  through  ecclesiastical 
motives,  inflamed  his  opposition.  While  his  Ministers 
were  bribing  the  Catliolics  to  acquiesce  in  the  Union 
by  holding  out  to  them  the  hope  tliat  it  would  secure 
their  emancipation,  the  King  was  basing  his  policy  on 
a  directly  opposite  calculation.  '  ]My  inclination  to 
the  Union  with  Ireland,'  he  wrote  in  February  1801, 
'  was  chiefly  founded  on  a  trust  that  the  uniting  of  the 
Established  Churches  of  the  two  kingdoms  would  for 
ever  shut  the  door  to  any  further  measures  with  respect 
to  the  Eoman  Catholics.'  The  language  w^hich  had 
been  held  to  the  Catholics,  and  in  reliance  on  which 
they  had  in  general  abstained  from  opposing  the  Union, 
had  been  held  without  the  knowledge  of  the  King,  and 
without  the  smallest  attempt  having  been  made  to  learn 
how  far  his  antipathy  might  be  surmounted.  This  was 
in  itself  sufficiently  culpable  ;  but  after  all  that  had  been 
said  and  done,  it  is  at  least  plain  that  Pitt  was  under 
the  strongest  moral  obligation  to  do  tlio  utmost  in  liis 


THE   CATHOLIC   QUESTION.  199 

power  to  cany  the  measure.  The  King  talked  of 
abdicating  if  it  were  passed ;  but  even  that  alternative 
should  have  been  faced,  thougli  it  should  not  be  for- 
gotten that  the  King  was  accustomed  to  use  such 
threats  whenever  he  urgently  desired  to  carry  his  point, 
and  that  his  language  about  the  recognition  of  the 
independence  of  America,  and  about  th'e  admission  of 
Fox  into  his  Cabinet,  was  quite  as  strong  as  his  lan- 
guage about  Catholic  emancipation.  It  was  an  im- 
perious obligation  of  national  honour — it  was  a  matter 
of  vital  importance  to  the  future  prosperity  of  tlie 
empire — that  the  Catholics  should  at  this  time  have 
been  emancipated,  and  there  is  no  reasonable  doubt 
that  Pitt  could  have  carried  the  measure  had  he  deter- 
mined it. 

He  did,  it  is  true,  resign  office  when  the  King  re- 
fused to  consent  to  it ;  but  there  has  seldom  been  a 
resignation  which  deserves  less  credit.  The  step  was 
evidently  taken  solely  because  it  was  impossible  that 
he  could  have  acted  otherwise  with  any  decorum  or 
without  a  palpable  loss  of  character,  and  because  Lord 
Grenville  and  some  of  his  other  colleagues  had  a 
strong  and  honourabfe  sense  of  their  duty  to  the 
Catholics.  It  is,  however,  quite  plain  that  Pitt, 
having  obtained  the  service  he  required  from  the 
Catholics,  felt  no  real  interest  in  their  emancipation ; 
that  he  was  resolved  to  incur  for  their  sakcs  no  diffi- 
culty he  could  possibly  avoid,  and  was  ready,  on  the 
first  decent  pretext,  to  sacrifice  them.  He  had  no 
personal  objection  to  Catholic  emancipation;  and  ou 
this,  as  on  most  other  subjects,  his  views  were  large 
and  liberal ;  but  on  this,  as  on  most  other  questions,  he 
showed  himself  thoroughly  selfish  and  dishonest,  pre- 
pared to  saerificc  any  principle  or  any  class  rather  than 
imi^eril  his  power  or  weaken  or  divide  his  followers. 


200  HENRT    GEATTAN. 

He  resigned  office  into  the  Lands  of  Addington,  whom 
he  regarded  as  a  mere  creature  of  his  own,  and  from 
whom  he  imagined  he  might  at  any  time  resume 
it.  He  resigned  it  at  a  moment  which  was  peculiarly 
convenient  to  him,  because  it  had  become  necessary  to 
negotiate  with  Napoleon,  and  the  antecedents  of  Pitt 
rendered  such  a  negotiation  more  difficult  and  humili- 
ating for  him  than  for  any  other  English  statesman.* 
He  resigned  it  with  his  usual  ostentatious  display  of 
public  principle,  because  the  King  would  not  consent 
to  Catholic  emancipation;  but  when  the  transfer  of 
office  had  been  effected,  and  when  tlie  agitation  pro- 
duced by  the  transaction  threw  the  King  into  one  of 
his  many  attacks  of  temporaiy  insanity,  Pitt  imme- 
diately availed  himself  of  tlie  opportunity  to  extricate 
liimself  from  a  political  embarrassment  by  fmally 
abandoning  the  Catholics.  That  his  position,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  King's  attack,  w^as  a  delicate  one, 
may  be  readily  admitted;  but  there  was  a  question 
of  honour  and  a  question  of  national  policy  wdiich 
should  have  overridden  all  other  considerations ;  and 
he  would  have  deserved  more  credit  for  his  delicacy 
if  it  had  not  coincided  so  perfectly  with  his  in- 
terest, and  if  it  had  not  involved  him  in  what  may 
be  not  unfairly  called  a  gross  breach  of  faith  with 
:he   Catholics.      And,  in    fact,  tlie   utmost   the   most 

^  I  have  no  doubt  that  the  Catholic  question  was  the  real  as  ■well  as 
Uie  ostensible  cause  of  the  resignation,  but  the  consideration  in  the  text 
fas  an  obvious  one,  and  it  greatly  mitigated  the  sacrifice.  Dundas  said 
t>f  Addington,  •  If  these  new  Ministers  ttay  in  and  make  peace,  it  will 
only  smooth  matters  the  more  for  us  aftenvards ;'  and  Lord  Malmcsburj , 
who  records  this  saying  in  his  Diary,  mentions  the  impression  that  *  Pitt 
19  inclined  to  lot  this  Ministry  remain  in  office  long  enough  to  make 
peace,  and  then  turn  them  out.' — See  Campbell's  '  Chancellors,'  viii. 
pp.  190,  191  ;  and  a  remarkable  letter  by  Dean  Milman  in  Lewis's 
•Administrations  of  Great  Britain,'  p.  270. 


THE   CATHOLIC   QUESTION.  201 

sensitive  delicacy  required  was  that  he   should   have 
abstained  at  the'time  of  the  King's  illness  from  press- 
incr  the  question.     But  this  was  not  the  course  which 
he   adopted.     Ostensibly   through   attachment  to  the 
cause  of  Catholic  emancipation,  he  resigned  his  office 
into    the    hands    of    a   violent    anti-Catholic    states- 
man, who,  as  we  now  know,  assumed  it  at  his  express 
desire.     Only  three  weeks  later,  when  the  King  had 
recovered,  when  Addington  had  formed  his  INIinistry 
without    difficulty,     and    when    all    was    proceeding 
smoothly,   he    volunteered   the  announcement  to  the 
King  that  he  would  never  during  the  King's  life  bring 
forw'ard  the  Catliolic  question ;  and  he  desired  by  this 
means,  if  the  King  or  Addington  would  take  the  first 
step,   to  return   to   power.     This  was  the  end  of  the 
'unalterable    sense    of   public  duty'   which   had   led 
him,  as  he  declared  three  weeks  before,  to  resign  office 
because  he  was  not  allowed  to  bring  in  the  Catholic 
question  witli  his    Majesty's    '  full  concurrence,  and 
with   tlie  whole  weight   of   Government.'     This   was 
tlie  end   of  all  the  hopes  by  which  Castlereagh  had 
lulled  to  sleep  the  Catholic  opposition  to  the  Union. 
Addington,  it  is  true,  refused  to  be  treated  as  a  mere 
puppe?,  and  to  resign  the  dignity  he  had  just  been 
entreated  to  assume;  but  the  treachery  of  Pitt  was 
only  postponed.     He  soon  became  Minister  again,  and 
he  resumed  the  reins  of  power  on  the  understanding 
that  he  would  not  only  not  bring  in  Catholic  emanci- 
pation during  the  King's  lifetime,  but  that  he  would 
also  not  suffer  it  to  be  carried.     As  for  the  payment 
of  the  priests,  wliich  was  another  important  part  of  the 
Union  scheme,  he  never  appears  to  liave  taken  any 
real  trouble  on  tlie  subject. 

In  the  meantime,  great  apprehension  was  felt  about 
the  attitude  of  t]ie  Irish  Catholics.     Except  during  the 


202  HENRY   G RATTAN. 

brief  interval  of  tranquillity  which  followed  the  peace 
of  Amiens,  England  was  engaged  in  the  most  desperate 
struggle  wdth  France,  and  Catholic  disloyalty  appeared 
proportionately  terrible.  Immediately  upon  the  re- 
signation of  Pitt,  and  the  installation  of  a  new  and 
anti-Catholic  ^Ministry,  the  Lord-Lieutenant,  Lord 
Cornwallis,  drew  up  a  paper,  ^vhich  he  privately  cir- 
culated among  the  Catholic  leaders,  in  which  he 
earnestly  exhorted  them  to  patience  under  their  dis- 
appointment, warned  them  against  Jacobinical  asso- 
ciations, and  expatiated  upon  the  great  advantage 
their  cause  had  gained  in  so  many  eminent  statesmen 
being  pledged  not  to  take  office  wdthout  carrying  it. 
This  paper  was  unofficial,  but,  emanating  as  it  did 
from  the  Lord-Lieutenant,  it  had  naturally  great 
w^eight.  It  proved  how^ever  to  be  but  one  more  added 
to  the  many  deceptions  tlie  Irisli  Catholics  experienced. 
Lord  Cornwallis,  who  immediately  after  resigned  his 
office,  subsequently  admitted  that  he  had  no  authority 
for  the  statement  tliat  the  retiring  Ministers  were 
pledged  to  abstain  from  office  till  they  could  carry 
Catholic  emancipation.  He  had  merely  drawn  an 
inference — though  it  must  be  admitted  a  very  natural 
inference — from  the  situation.  Whatever  may  liavc 
been  the  opinion  of  others,  he  at  least  believed  that 
the  communications  he  liad  made  to  the  Catholic 
leaders  amounted  to  a  moral  pledge.  When  Pitt,  three 
wTcks  after  liis  resignation,  offered  to  abandon  the 
Catholics,  lie  made  none  of  his  colleagues  liis  con- 
fidants except  Dundas,  who  was  notorious  among 
politicians  for  his  lax  sense  of  liouour;  but  on  liis 
return  to  office,  the  attitude  he  resolved  to  assume 
towards  them  became  manifest.  They  acted  witJi  the 
most  signal  moderation.  Tliey  would  at  this  time 
have    gladly  accepted   emancipation   accompanied  by 


THE    CATHOLIC    QUESTION.  203 

those  safeguards  which  a  few  years  later  they  so  scorn- 
fully rejected.  They  abstained,  not  only  from  all 
disloyal  associations,  but  even  from  all  political  agita- 
tion that  miglit  embarrass  the  Government ;  and  it 
vvas  only  in  1805  that  their  leaders  brought  over  to 
London  a  jxitition  for  emancipation,  whicli  tliey  asked 
Pitt,  who  was  then  in  power,  to  present  and  to  sup- 
port. He  not  only  refused  to  do  so,  but  even  declared 
that  he  would  oppose  it ;  and,  after  a  brilliant  debate, 
the  Catholics  were  defeated  by  an  overwhelming 
majority  through  his  influence.  Can  it  be  wondered 
that  O'Connell  found  them  apt  scholars  wlien  he  taught 
them  to  exchange  a  policy  of  moderation  for  one  of 
violent  agitation  ? 

Grattan,  in  one  of  liis  speeches,  described  a  portion 
of  the  English  policy  towards  Ireland  with  character- 
istic energy,  as  one  'than  which  you  would  hardly- 
find  a  worse  if  you  went  to  hell  for  your  principles,  and/ 
to  Bedlam  for  your  discretion.'  I  shall  content  myself 
with  saying  that  we  sliould  liave  heard  few  eulogies  of 
the  honourable  character  of  the  Irish  policy  of  Pitt  if 
l^nglish  writers  were  not  accustomed  to  judge  Irisli 
politics  by  a  standard  of  lionour  very  different  from 
tliat  which  they  would  apply  to  English  ones.  How 
liis  desertion  of  the  Catholics  was  regarded  by  the  most 
upright  of  his  opponents  is  abundantly  shown  in  the 
private  letters  of  Fox  and  of  Grey ;  and  the  subse- 
quent career  of  O'Connell  is  a  sufficient  comment  upon 
the  wisdom  of  his  proceedings.  It  has  been  main- 
tained, however,  by  some  writers,  who  would  probably 
have  admitted  that  in  these  negotiations  the  part 
played  by  Pitt  was  very  culpable,  that  the  original 
scheme  of  the  Union  was  at  least  an  extraordinary  in- 
stance of  political  genius.  Lord  IMacaulay,  who  has 
probably  done  more  than  any  other  writer  to  accredit 


204  IIEKRY    GRATTAN. 

tliis  opinion,  Las  described  the  project  of  comLining 
in  a  single  measure  the  legislative  Union  of  the  two 
countries,  the  emancipation  of  the  Catholics,  and  the 
payment  of  their  priests,  as  '  a  scheme  of  policy  so 
grand  and  so  simple,  so  righteous  and  so  humane,  that  it 
would  alone  entitle  him  to  a  high  place  among  states- 
men.' I  venture  to  think  that  this  judgment  is  en- 
tirely erroneous.  The  project  of  a  Union,  and  the 
project  of  settling  the  Catholic  question  by  admitting 
Catholics  to  Parliament,  and  by  paying  their  priests, 
were  no  novelties.  They  had  for  years  been  common- 
place subjects  of  discussion  in  political  circles  ;  and 
one  of  the  standard  arguments  against  emancipating 
the  Catholics  had  been  that  it  would  be  dangerous  to 
give  them  such  power  in  a  local  Parliament.  The  ex- 
pediency of  combining  the  two  projects  was  perfectly 
obvious.  The  idea  was  so  self-evident  that  it  must 
have  been  suggested  at  a  hundred  dinner-tables,  and  it 
is  hardly  conceivable  that  it  should  not  have  occurred 
to  any  statesman  who  approved  of  both  measures,  and 
who  was  seeking  to  make  tlie  first  popular  in  Ireland. 
The  Union  was  emphatically  one  of  that  class  of  mea- 
sures in  which  the  scope  for  statesmanship  lies  not  in 
the  conception  but  in  the  execution.  Had  Pitt  carried 
it  Vvithout  offending  the  national  sentiment — had  he 
enabled  the  majority  of  the  Irish  people  to  look  back 
on  it  with  affection  or  with  pride — had  he  made  it  the 
means  of  allaying  discontent  or  promoting  loyalty — 
he  would  indeed  have  achieved  a  feat  of  consummate 
statesmanship.  But  in  all  these  respects  he  utterly 
failed.  There  was,  it  is  true,  no  small  amount  of  dex- 
terity of  a  somewhat  vidpine  order  displayed  in  carry- 
ins:  the  Bill :  but  no  measure  ever  show^ed  less  of  that 
enlightened  and  far-seeing  statesmanship  which  respects 
the  prejudices  and  conciliates  the  aflcctions  of  a  nation. 


ENTERS  THE  ENGLISH  PARLIAMENT.       205 

Rnd  thus  eradicates  the  seeds  of  disaffection  and  dis- 
content. 

When  the  Union  was  passed,  Grattan  for  a  time  re- 
tired from  politics.     His  health  had  been   for  some 
time  unsatisfactory,  and  his  spirits  were  greatly  de- 
pressed by  a  defeat  which  he  regarded  as  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  liberties  of  his  country.     Hq  saw  in  it  the 
overthrow  of  the  entire  labour  of  his  life,  and  it  un- 
folded to  his  piercing  eye  a  long  vista  of  agitation,  of 
disloyalty,  and  disaster.     For  some  time  he  could  not 
bear  to  hear  it  discussed  in  conversation ;  his  eyes  often 
lilled  with  tears  when  speaking  of  it,  and  even  many 
years  afterwards  he  occasionally  broke  into  paroxysms 
of  indignation  on  the  subject,  that  contrasted  strangely 
with  hfs  usual  gentleness.^     The  people,  who  had  been 
paralysed  by  the  late  Rebellion,  remained  in  a  state  of 
stupefied  and  sullen  quiescence.     Emmett's  rebellion, 
Avhich  took  place  in  1803,  cannot  be  regarded  as  in  any 
degree  the  consequence  of  the  Union.     It  was  but  the 
List  wave  of  the  Rebellion  of  1798,  and  originated  in 
tlic  overheated  brain  of  an  amiable  and  gifted,  but 
most  unpractical,  enthusiast.     One  great  cause,  how- 
ever, still  remained,  and  to  the  service  of  Catholics 
Grattan  resolved  to  devote  liis  remaining  years.     He 
entered  the  Britisli  Parliament  in  1805,  and  took  his 
seat  modestly  on  one  of  tlie  back  benches ;  but  Fox, 
exclaiming  '  This  is  no  place  for  the  Irish  Demosthenes !' 
drew  him  forward,  and  placed  him  near  himself.  Great 

>  He  believed  that  the  Union,  jimong  other  effects,  would  have  that  of 
preatly  lowering  the  character  of  the  Irish  representatives,  and  he  ex- 
pr.-ssed  his  opinion  with  his  usual  odd  emphatic  exaggeration.  '\ou 
have  swept  away  our  constitution,'  ho  once  said  to  some  English 
gcntUrnen  ;  '  von  have  destroyed  our  rnrliament,  hut  we  shall  have  our 
revenge  W  will  send  into  the  ranks  of //our  Parliament,  and  into  the 
very  lieart  of  your  constitution,  a  hundred  of  the  greatest  scoundrels  m 
the  kingdom ! ' 


206  IIENKY    G RATTAN. 

doubts  were  felt  about  his  success.  The  difference  of  the 
tone  and  habits  of  the  two  Parliaments,  the  advanced 
ao-e  of  Grattan,  the  recent  failure  of  Flood,  and  the 
cause  Grattan  had  assigned  for  that  failure,^  suggested 
weighty  reason  for  fear.  Much  anxiety,  therefore,  and 
much  curiosity,  were  felt  when  he  rose  to  speak  on  that 
memomble  night  when  the  Catholic  question  was  re- 
opened. For  a  moment,  it  is  said,  the  strangeness  of 
his  gestures,  and  the  apparent  difficulty  of  his  enun- 
ciation, served  to  confirm  those  fears  ;  but  it  was  but 
for  a  moment,  ^fter  almost  the  first  passage  he  was 
listened  to  with  an  intense  and  ever-increasing  admi- 
ration, and  when  he  sat  down  it  was  felt  that  he  had 
more  than  justified  his  reputation.  It  was,  indeed,  one 
of  the  very  greatest  speeches  he  ever  delivered.  It 
would  be  difficult  to  point  out  any  other  that  displayed 
a  more  wonderful  combination  of  powerful  reasoning, 
epigram,  imagination,  and  declamation.  Pitt,  who 
made  the  first  motion  of  applause,  exclaimed,  'Burke 
told  me  that  Grattan  was  a  wonderful  man  for  a  popular 
audience,  and  I  see  that  he  was  right.'  Fox,  in  a  pri- 
vate letter  to  Trotter,  said,  '  I  am  sure  it  will  give  you 
pleasure  to  liear  that  Grattan's  success  in  the  House  of 
Commons  was  complete,  and  acknowledged  even  by 
those  who  had  entertained  great  hopes  of  his  failure/ 
The  '  Annual  Register '  called  the  speech  '  one  of  the 
most  brilliant  and  eloquent  ever  pronounced  within 
the  walls  of  Parliament.'  It  was  in  the  course  of  this 
speech  that,  in  adverting  to  the  first  Catholic  Relief 
Bill,  he  digressed  into  an  eulogium  of  the  Irish  Parlia- 
ment ;  and,  speaking  of  the  services  he  had  rendered 
to  its  freedom,  uttered  that  sentence  so  famous  for  its 

*  '  lie  was  an  oak  of  the  foi-est  too  old  and  too  great  tu  be  trans;plaiitod 
nt  fifty; 


heligiods  opisioxs  of  the  cocntkt.  207 

louohing  and  concentrated  beauty  :  '  I  watched  by  its 
cradle,  I  followed  its  hearse.' 

The  Union,  by  making  the  public  opinion  of  Eng 
land  the  arbiter  of  the  Catholic  question,  had  entirely 
altered  its  conditions;  and,  as  I  have  already  endea- 
voured to  show,  had  considerably  increased  its  difficul- 
ties.    Public  opinion  had  .also  about  this  period  taken 
a  direction  strongly  adverse   to  emancipation.      The 
Tory  reaction  which  followed  the  Revolution  was  still 
in  full  force,  and  a  religious  movement  had  been  for 
some  time  fermenting  in  England,  which  had  m  a 
oreat  measure  dispelled  the  indifference  on  doctrinal 
questions  that  had  long  been  prevalent,  and  had  greatly 
intensified  the  Protestant  feeling  among  the  peop  e. 

It  will  be  sufBciently  evident  to  anyone  who  follows 
the  history  of  the  two  Churches  that  their  separation 
had  reached  its  extreme  limit  when  the  Puritans  were 
dominant  in  England  and  Bossuet  was  ruling  public 
opinion  in  France.     The  Puritans  represented  1  rotes- 
tantism  in  its  most  exaggerated  and  undiluted  form; 
while  Bossuet,  who  exercised  a  greaU^r  influence  over 
the  lay  mind  than  perhaps  any  theologian  since  Calvin, 
was  maintaining  the  tenets  of  his  Church  with  the  most 
unfln-ing  zeal.     He  was  indeed  so  far  from  adopting 
•uiv  extreme  or  Ultramontane  opinions  that  he  even  en- 
tered into  a  correspondence  ^«th  Leibnitz  on  the  possi- 
bilitvof  a  compromise;  but  he  asserted  most  empha- 
tically the  great  distinctive  principle  of  authority;  he 
defined  the  points  of  diUerence  with  such  a  rigid  accu- 
racy that  no  evasion  was  possible ;  and  he  laid  a  gi-eatei 
stress  upon  dogmas  as  distinguished  from  morals  tlmn 
nerhaps'any  other  popular  writer  of  his  Church.    After 
this  period,  for  about  a  century,  the  two  systems  seemed 
rapidly  approximating.     If  we  compare  the  sermons  of 
MassiUon  with  th.se  of  Bossuet  we  see  the  change  m 


B08  HENRY   GRATTAN. 

its  commencement ;  if  we  compare  the  sermons  of  Blair 
or  of  Kirwan  with  those  of  the  early  Anglican  divines, 
we  see  it  in  its  completion.  Dogma  had  formerly 
almost  superseded  practical  teaching,  but  it  now  in  its 
turn  gave  way.  The  Christian  preacher  became  at  last 
simply  an  expounder  of  morals.  A  well-regulated  dis- 
position, a  virtuous  life,  and  an  active  benevolence, 
were  represented  as  almost  a  summary  of  Christianity. 
The  Bible  was  regarded  as  a  repository  of  noble  maxims 
and  of  instructive  examples.  The  triumph  of  religion 
would  be  merely  tlie  perfection  of  order,  the  apotheosis 
and  the  completion  of  government.  This  tendency  may 
be  in  part  ascribed  to  the  natural  reaction  and  fatigue 
that  followed  the  fierce  controversies  of  the  preceding 
century  ;  and  it  was  also  in  a  great  measure  due  to  the 
prevalence  of  scepticism  in  both  Churches.  In  England 
sceptical  opinions  had  been  maintained  openly  by  Bo- 
lingbroke,  and  Gibbon,  and  Hume ;  and  if  the  whole 
light  literature  at  tlie  close  of  the  last  century  was  not 
Voltairian  in  its  spirit,  it  was  probably  owing  in  a 
great  measure  to  the  extraordinary  influence  of  Dr. 
Johnson.  In  France  no  such  restraint  existed.  Voltaire 
and  Ivousseau  towered  far  above  tlieir  contemporaries, 
and  never  disguised  their  sentiments.  The  sarcasms  of 
Voltaire  turned  the  whole  stream  of  ridicule  and  wit 
against  the  Church  ;  while  the  burning  eloquence,  the 
impassioned  earnestness,  and  the  intense  realising 
powers  of  Eousseau,  fell  witli  terrific  effect  on  its  tot- 
tering system.  Tlie  University  of  Paris  issued  an 
answer  to  the  '  Vicar  of  Savoy,'  but  it  is  now  almost 
forgotten.  All  the  real  talent  of  the  country  seemed 
ranged  against  the  established  faith,  and  its  defenders 
were  compelled  to  adopt  an  apologetical  and  an  evasive 
tone.  It  was  quite  true  that  all  infants  who  died  un- 
baptised  were  excluded  from  heaven,  but  then  hell  was 


MOVEMENTS   OF   TnEOLOGY.  209 

an  indefinite  expression,  and  comprised  a  variety  of 
conditions,  and  St.  Augustine  was  not  prepared  to  say 
that  it  would  be  better  for  those  children  had  they 
never  been  born.  Purgatory  was  undoubtedly  a  Ca- 
tholic doctrine,  but  it  was  not  necessarily  the  place  of 
torment  by  fire  which  was  portrayed  in  the  pictures  in 
every  church.  Though  the  priests  had  at  one  time 
celebrated  almost  every  royal  marriage  in  Spain  by  an 
auto-da-fe,  and  though  a  Pope  had  struck  medals  in 
commemoration  of  the  massacre  of  St.  Bartholomew, 
yet  the  spirit  of  Torquemada  and  of  Catherine  de'  Me- 
dicis  might  be  safely  reprehended  by  the  orthodox. 
The  doctrine  of  invincible  ignorance  was  brought  pro- 
minently forward.  The  doctrine  of  infallibility  was 
interpreted  in  its  broadest  sense,  and  the  attribute  was 
applied  not  to  an  individual,  but  to  the  whole  Churcli. 
Above  all,  the  purity  of  the  moral  teaching  of  Chris- 
tianity was  asserted  and  displayed,  while  its  special 
doctrines  were  allowed  to  fall  into  the  background.  In 
this  manner  the  two  religions  began  rapidly  to  as- 
similate, when  the  tide  again  tm*ned,  and  a  violent 
revulsion  set  in.  In  Roman  Catholic  countries  Ultra- 
montanism  once  more  became  dominant  after  the  Ive- 
volution,  but  it  purchased  its  triumph  dearly.  Tlic 
priests  taught  the  most  extreme  Eoman  Catholic  doc- 
trines, while  the  educated  laity  remained  disciples  of 
Montaigne,  if  not  of  Voltaire.  In  England  the  Me- 
thodists had  begun  their  labours ;  and,  after  many 
years  of  comparatively  unnoticed  preaching  among  the 
poor,  their  principles  began  to  leaven  the  higher  ranks, 
and  to  embody  themselves  in  the  great  Evangelical 
party. 

The  Ultramontane  and  tlie  Evangelical  movements 
completely  altered  the  attitude  of  the  two  religions 
botli    towards    scepticism    and    towards    each    other. 


210  HENRY    GRATTAN. 

Voltaire  had  maintained  in  France  that  the  doctrines 
of  the  Church  were  contrary  to  reason  and  to  the  moral 
sense  ;  and  Ultramontanism  answered  that  these  were 
absolutely  incompetent  to  judge  them.     Bolingbroke 
had  argued  in  England  that  the  moral  teaching  ot 
Christianity  existed  in  the  works  of  the  pagan  philo- 
sophers ;   and  the  Evangelical   replied   that  a  moral 
system  had  no  efficacy  as  a  means  of  salvation,  and  was 
only  enforced  in  the  New  Testament  as  a  secondary 
and  subordinate   object.     The  two  sections  of  Chris- 
tianity had   been    approximating,   on   the    ground  of 
common  duties  ;  and  the  Evangelical  taught  that  man 
could  not  perform   duties   acceptably,  and   that   the 
whole  scope  and  purport  of  Christianity  was  to  teach  a 
doctrine  wliich  the  Church  of  Eome  refused  to  admit. 
Against  this  Church,  then,  as  tlie  most  powerful,  the 
most  subtle,  and  the  most  specious  opponent  of  trutli, 
all  the    energies   of  the   Evangelicals  were    directed. 
They  traced   its   lineaments   in   every   intimHtion   of 
coming  apostacy  contained  in  tlie  prophetic  writings. 
They  recognised  it  as  the  horn  of  Daniel  '  speaking 
proud  things ' — as  the  mystic  Babylon,  red  with  the 
blood  of  the  saints — as  the  jMan  of  Sin,  who  Avas  to  be 
revealed  when  the   Roman  empire  was  removed — as 
the  spirit  of  Antichrist,  that  was  to  seduce  and  to 
triumph  in  the  latter  days.     They  revived  the  histo- 
ries of  bygone  persecutions  that  transcended  the  worst 
efiforts  of  paganism,  and  laboured  with  the  same  un- 
tiring assiduity  in  the  pulpit  and  on  the  hustings,  in 
the  religious  tale  and  the  newspaper  article,  to  repress 
and  to  crush  the  Church  they  feared. 

The  Evano-elical  movement  was  somev;hat  slow  in 
spreading  to  Ireland,  and  during  the  greater  part  of 
the    viditecntli    century  tlie   Irish    Protestant   clergy 


PROTESTANT   TOLERANCE.  211 


were  in  general  far  from  bigots.     The  theological  tem- 
perature, as  I  have  said,  was  very  moderate,  and  the 
habit,  which  the  penal  laws  produced,   of  ostensibly 
passing  from  one  religion  to  the  other  in  order  to  join 
a  profession  or  preserve   a   property,    contributed   to 
lower  it.     In  1745,  it  is  true,  under  the  fear  of  an 
impending  invasion,  a  kind  of  panic   of  intolerance 
passed  through  the  clergy,  and  they  were  mischievously 
active  in  denouncing  the  Catholics,  but  for  the  most 
part  they  were  very  harmless  men,  who  discharged  social 
and  philanthropic  functions  of  unquestionable  utility, 
meddled  little  with  dogmatic  theology,  and    seldom 
interfered  with  their  Catholic  neighbours.     The  tithe 
riots  of  the  eighteenth  century  had  little  or  no  con- 
nection with  religious  animosity,  and  the  Protestant 
landlords  were  almost  as  hostile  to  the  tithes  as  their 
tenants.     In  1725,  when  the  penal  laws  were  at  their 
height,  a  Protestant  clergyman  named   Syngc,  in  a 
very   remarkable    sermon   preached    before   the    Irish 
House  of  Commons,  and  published  by  its  order,  urged 
the  duty  of  granting  perfect  toleration  to  the  Catholics. 
Ten  years  later  the  illustrious  Bishop  Berkeley,  in  his 
'  Querist,'  advocated  their  admission  into  Dublin  Uni- 
ve'rsity,    and  their  exemption  from  the  obligation  of 
attending  chapel  or  divinity  lectures— a  policy  which 
was  carri'^ed  out  in  Ireland  near  the  end  of  the  century. 
The    fVimous   Bishop  of  Derry  was  one  of  the   most 
imcompromising    supporters    of  the    Catholic    claims. 
He  was,  no  doubt,  too  violent  and  eccentric  to  be  taken 
us  a  fair  specimen  of  his  order,  but  the  great  Relief  Bill 
of    1793,  ^^liic^  S^^'^  ^^^^  Catholics  the  suffrage,  was 
wumlv  supported  by  several  bishops,  and  acquiesced 
in    bv\he  majority  of  the   clergy;    and  it  produced 
UMlhin--  of  that  frantic  intolerance  whicl),  both  among 


212  HENRY   GRATTAN. 

the  English  and  Irish  clergy,  was  aroused  by  the  much 
less  important  measure  of  1829.*  Dublin  University 
has  always  been  looked  upon  as  a  stronghold  of  Irish 
Protestanism,  but  it  was  by  many  years  the  first  univer- 
sity in  the  kingdom  to  throw  open  its  degrees  to 
Catholics,  and  even  in  the  years  that  followed  the  Union 
it  was  represented  by  Plunket,  at  a  time  when  that 
great  orator  was  leading  the  Catholic  cause. 

It  would  be,  I  conceive,  a  mistake  to  attribute  the 
tolerance  of  the  Irish  Protestants  towards  the  close  of 
the  eighteen  til  century  to  the  prevalence  of  conscious 
scepticism.  Avowed  and  reasoned  free  thought  has 
never  been  very  common  in  Ireland,^  and  the  Irish 
literature  towards  the  end  of  the  last  century  and  the 
beginning  of  tlie  present  is  full  of  the  usual  denun- 
ciations of  scepticism,  and  the  usual  depreciation  of 

'  A  contemporary  Irish  liistorian  tlius  describes  tho  attitude  of  the 
clergy  on  this  occasion  :  '"What  a  picture  of  liberality  and  moderation 
did  tho  conduct  of  the  Established  clergy  of  Ireland  exhibit  during  tlio 
recent  application  for  Catliolie  emancipation  !  Many  pious  and  learned 
prelates  exerted  their  eloquence  in  Parliament  in  support  of  Catho- 
licity ;  and  the  entire  body  of  the  Protestant  clergy,  in  tlieir  conduct  on 
this  occasion,  have  fully  affirmed  themselves  the  disciples  of  tlie  meek, 
mild,  and  gentle  Author  of  Christianity.' — MnUalcCs  Irish  Affairs  (1705), 
vol.  ii.  p.  260. 

=  Primate  Boulter  complained  bitterly  of  'the  growtli  of  atheism, 
profanity,  and  immorality'  in  Ireland,  but  it  seems  to  liave  sliown  itself 
rhiefly  in  resistance  to  tithes.  Tuland  vas  an  Irishman,  but  lived  in 
England,  and  when  he  went  to  Ireland  ho  was  denounced  from  the 
pulpit,  and  such  an  outcry  was  raised  that  it  became  dangerous  to  speak 
to  him,  and  ho  could  hardly  procure  tho  necessaries  of  life.  He  appears 
liowever  to  have  been  guilty  of  much  imprudence  in  prop;igating  his 
views.  Parliament  ordered  his  '  Christianity  not  Mysteriuus  '  to  be 
burnt,  and  the  author  to  be  arrested,  and  he  only  escaped  by  precipitate 
flight.  Molyneux  has  described  the  transaction  in  letters  to  Locke, 
and  South  wrote  in  great  glee  to  tho  Archbishop  of  Dublin:  'Your 
Parliament  presently  sent  him  packing,  and  without  the  help  of  a  faggot 
Boon  made  the  kingdom  too  hot  for  him.' — Disrac'is  Calainitks  of 
Authors,  vol.  ii.  p.  lo3. 


rnOTESTANT    TOLERANCE.  213 

sceptical  writers.'  At  the  same  time  tlie  t3^pe  of  pre- 
vailinjr  Protestantism,  like  tliat  of  the  prevailing 
Catholicism,  was  singularly  colourless  and  undogmatic. 
I  have  already  quoted  some  sentences  from  the  speeches 
of  Grattan,  describing  the  gradual  assimilation  of  the 
two  creeds,  and  I  may  add  that  no  one  appears  to  have 
been  scandalised  by  the  somewhat  startling  summary 
of  ecclesiastical  history  which  the  same  speaker  threw 
out  in  one  of  his  greatest  orations :  '  The  only  Divine 
institution  we  know  of — the  Christian  religion — did  so 
corrupt  as  to  have  become  an  abomination,  and  was 
rescued  by  Act  of  Parliament.'  In  an  age  when 
sectarian  virulence  has  obtained  a  gi'eat  empire  over 
the  minds  of  men,  it  seldom  fails  to  reflect  itself  in  the 
hallucinations  of  speculators  in  unfulfilled  prophecy  ; 
but,  as  we  have  already  seen,  Mr.  Dobbs,  who  was  the 
most  enthusiastic  Irish  labourer  in  this  field,  was  a 
warm  advocate  of  tlie  Catholic  claims.  By  far  the 
most  eminent  man  in  the  Protestant  Church  at  the 
end  of  the  last  cent\iry  was  Dean  Kirwan,  who,  if 
estimated  by  the  power  he  exercised  over  the  feelings 
of  his  auditors,  by  the  beneficence  he  evoked,  and  by 
the  judgments  of  his  contemporaries,  at  a  time  when 
the  standard  of  eloquence  was  extremely  high,  must  be 
placed  as  a  pulpit  orator  almost  on  a  level  with  White- 
field.  This  very  remarkable  man  had  been  originally 
a  Catholic,  and  one  of  the  reasons  he  alleged  for  joining 
tlic  Established  Church  was,  that  he  should  thus  obtain 
more  extensive  opportunities  of  doing  good.    He  rigidly 

^  E.g.  '  The  writings  of  Ilumo  anrl  Gibbon,  which  have  been  directly 
or  inilin^tly  levelled  against  the  Christian  religion,  have  long  sinco 
punk  into  merited  oblivion.' — MuUala's  View  of  Irish  Affairs  from  the 
Jtcvolution  (1795),  vol.  ii.  p.  280.  '  Surely  ix  Voltaire,  a  Kousscau,  or  a 
Gibbon  were  as  inferior  to  Colin  Maclaurin  in  mental  power  as  they 
were  in  bo<lily  strength  to  Hercules  or  Sampson.'— TP^/an's  Historjf  of 
Ute  Effects  of  Religion  (1S02),  p.  421. 


214  HENRY   G  RATTAN. 

abstained  in  all  liis  sermons  from  every  topic  relating 
to  the  differences  between  the  two  Churches,  making  it, 
as  he  said,  his  main  object  'to  banish  religious  pre- 
judices, to  diffuse  through  society  the  great  blessings 
of  peace,  order,  and  mutual  affection,  and  to  represent 
Christianity  as  a  practical  institution  of  religion  de- 
signed to  regulate  the  dispositions  and  improve  the 
characters  of  men  ; '  and  he  at  last  devoted  his  talents 
entirely  to  pleading  the  cause  of  charitable  institutions. 

A  society  could  not  have  been  very  bigoted  when  it 
most  popular  preacher  adopted  such  a  tone.  Kirw\nn 
though  a  man  of  spotless  reputation  and  splendid  genius, 
never  obtained  any  more  lucrative  preferment  than  a 
deanery  of  400^  a  year,  and  was  able  to  leave  no  fortune 
to  his  children ;  but  something  of  his  spirit  was  shown 
among  his  more  fortunate  brethren.  Law,  the  Bishop 
of  Elphin,  was  accustomed  to  distribute  among  his 
Catholic  parisliioners  the  best  books  of  their  own  authors, 
saying  that,  as  ho  could  not  make  tliem  good  Protes- 
tants, he  at  least  wished  them  to  be  good  IJoman 
Catholics. 

I  have  dwelt  at  some  length  upon  these  facts,  for 
th(^y  are  not  much  known  in  England,  and  they  have  a 
considerable  importance  in  thehistory  of  public  opinion 
in  Ireland.  And,  indeed,  the  amount  of  intolerance 
tliat  formerly  existed  in  both  religions  has  been  not  a 
little  exaggerated;  for  atrocities  wliich  were  really  due 
to  an  liostility  of  races  have  been  ascribed  to  the 
conflict  of  their  religions.  The  Irish  have  not  generally 
been  an  intolerant  or  persecuting  people.  The  early 
history  of  the  introduction  of  Christianity  into  Ireland, 
though  not,  as  has  been  said,  absolutely  bloodless,^  was 
at  least  imusually  pacific,  and  it  was  an  old  reproach 
against  Irishmen,  that  tlieir  country,  which  had  pro- 
'  There  is  a  discussion  en  tl.is  .  oint  in  Todd's  'Life  of  St.  Patrick.' 


HETIYAL    OF    SECTARIANISM.  215 

diiced  innumera]>le  saints,  had  produced  no  martyr. 
Dui'ing  the  atrocious  persecutions  of  Mary,  the  English 
Protestants  were  perfectly  unmolested  in  Ireland.  The 
massacre  of  Protestants  in  1642  was  so  little  due  to 
religious  causes  that  the  only  Englishman  of  eminence 
who  was  treated  by  the  rebels  with  reverence  and 
care  was  Bisliop  Bedell,  who  was  one  of  the  most 
energetic  Protestants  of  his  age,  and  the  first  Irish 
bishop  who  attempted  to  proselytise  among  the  Ca- 
tholics. The  Irish  people  have  always  been  more 
superstitious  than  the  English,  and  perhaps  than  the 
Scotcli,  but  their  superstitions  liave  usually  taken  a 
milder  form.  Many  liundreds  of  unhappy  women 
have  perished  on  the  cliarge  of  witchcraft  lx)th  in 
England  and  Scotland  since  tlie  Reformation,  but  I 
am  not  aware  of  the  witch  mania  having  ever  raged 
in  Ireland  to  a  degree  at  all  comparable  to  that  in 
England  under  James  I.  and  the  Puritans,  and  in  Scot- 
land during  a  great  part  of  the  seventeenth  century.' 
Whatever  animosity  the  penal  laws  produced  had  in 
a  great  measure  subsided  towards  the  end  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  in 
any  country  more  moderate  or  liberal  members  of  their 
respective  faiths  than  Kirwan,  the  greatest  preacher 
among  the  Irish  Protestants,  and  O'Leary,  the  greatest 
writer  among  the  Irish  Catholics. 

The  elements  of  religious  animosity,  however,  though 
they  were  almost  dormant,  existed  in  abundance,  and 
several  causes  concurred,  with  the  rise  of  the  Evangelical 

'  A  famoiis  Irish  uitch  case — that  of  Dame  Alice  Kytelor,  in  1324 — 
lias  been  reprinted  by  the  Camden  Society,  and  a  few  \inimportant 
later  ones  are  given  by  Glanvil  in  his  '  Sadducismus  Triumphatus. 
Hutchinson,  "Wright,  and  Madden  appear  to  liavo  found  no  other  Irish 
cases.  It  is  much  to  be  wished  that  some  Irish  arclueologioal  sociiify 
would  investigate  more  fully  than  (as  far  as  I  am  aware)  lias  yet  boon 
done  th.e  historv  of  Irisli  witchcraft. 


216  HENHY   GllATTAN. 

movement,  in  resuscitating  them.  The  many  outbursts 
of  lawless  violence  that  convulsed  the  country  froni 
the  middle  of  the  century  had  been  for  a  long  time 
entirely  unconnected  with  religion.  Rack-rents,  the 
fiscal  pressure  of  tithes,  the  invasions  of  common  land 
by  the  landlords,  tlie  law  which  compelled  workmen  to 
devote  a  certain  amount  of  unpaid  labour  to  repairing 
the  county  roads,  were  the  causes  or  pretexts  of  the 
appearance  of  the  \Vliiteboys,  the  Oakboys,  and  the 
Hearts  of  Steel.  In  1785,  however,  a  new  type  of 
disturbance  began.  Protestants  in  the  county  Armagh, 
and  afterwards  in  other  districts,  began  to  form  bands 
under  the  name  of  Peep-of-Day  Boys,  and  to  attack 
and  persecute  the  Catholics,  wlio  then  formed  societies 
called  '  Defenders,'  which  were  at  first  a  kind  of 
irregular  police,  and  soon  after  became  bands  of  de- 
predators. The  Relief  Bill  of  1793,  conferring  votes 
upon  the  Catholicr.,  produced  some  slight  economical 
disturbance  ;  for  landlords,  who  had  especially  favoured 
Protestant  tenants  on  account  of  the  political  influence 
they  could  give,  now  freely  admitted  the  competition 
of  Catholics.  It  was  not,  however,  till  the  furious 
passions  aroused  by  tlie  recall  of  Lord  Fitzwilliam  had 
broken  .out  that  religious  animosity  became  intense. 
In  1795  the  Orangemen  came  into  existence,  and 
signalised  themselves  by  spreading  riot  over  a  great 
part  of  the  north  of  Ireland.  The  battle  of  the 
Diamond,  in  which  they  defeated  a  large  body  of 
Catholics,  and  in  which  forty-eight  men  were  killed, 
took  place  in  the  December  of  this  year,  and,  being 
sedulously  commemorated  by  the  Orangemen,  it  pro- 
duced an  intense  and  an  enduring  animosity.  Many 
Catholics  were  compelled  to  emigrate  from  the  county 
Armagh,  and  take  refuge  in  Connaught.  As  the 
Rebellion  became  imminent,  the  violence  of  sectarian 


DR.    DUIGENAN.  217 

feeling  lose  to  the  highest  point,  and  all  who  tried 
to  allay  it  were  looked  upon  with  suspicion.  The 
name  of  Grattan  was  struck  off  the  Privy  Council,  and 
the  Dublin  University  authorities  removed  his  picture 
from  their  hall,  and  replaced  it  by  that  of  Clare. 
When  the  Eebellion  actually  broke  out,  it  aroused 
all  the  worst  and  fiercest  passions  of  the  nation.  Wesley 
had  before  this  turned  aside  from  his  religious  labours 
to  write  against  the  removal  of  the  penal  laws.  In  tho 
Irish  Grovernment,  Lord  Clare  was  fiercely  anti-Catholic, 
and  similar  sentiments  were  energetically  maintained 
in  the  Irish  and  aftei-wards  in  the  English  House  of 
Commons  by  the  notorious  Dr.  Duigenan. 

This  very  singular  personage  is  said  to  liave  been 
himself  originally  a  Roman  Catholic.  He  was  a  man 
of  low  extraction,  but  of  some  talents,  and  had  been  a 
Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  where  he  wrote  a  book 
against  the  provost,  Hely  Hutchinson.  He  obtained  a 
seat  in  the  Irish  House  of  Commons,  and  laboured 
witliout  success  to  procure  the  cessation  of  the  May- 
nooth  gmnt  which  had  been  made  during  the  ad- 
ministration of  Lord  Fitzwilliam.  He  was  one  of  the 
warmest  supporters  of  the  Union,  and  in  the  English 
Parliament  the  most  vituperative  and  indefatigable 
opponent  of  the  Catholic  claims.  He  adopted  that 
method  which  is  still  employed  by  some  politicians,  of 
exhuming  all  the  immoral  sentiments  of  the  school- 
men, the  Jesuit  casuists,  and  the  mediaeval  councils, 
and  parading  them  continually  before  the  Parliament 
and  before  the  country.^  Against  this  system  Grattan 
energetically  protested.      '  No  religion,'  he  said  in  one 

»  It  is  ciirious  that  he  -vras  married  to  a  Roman  Catholic ;  he  pro- 
posed to  ber  and  -was  refused  when  young,  but  was  accepted  many  years 
after,  when  she  -was  a  ■widow.  In  spite,  however,  or  perhaps  in  conse- 
quence of  matrimony,  his  antipathy  to  the  Church  of  Rome  continuo4 
unabated  to  the  end. 

11 


218  UENRT    G  RATTAN. 

of  his  speeches,  '  can  stand  if  men,  without  regard  to 
their  God,  and  with  regard  only  to  controversy,  shall 
rake  out  of  the  rubbish  of  antiquity  the  obsolete  and 
quaint  follies  of  the  sectarians,  and  affront  the  majesty 
of  the  Almighty  with  the  impudent  catalogue  of  their 
devices ;  and  it  is  a  strong  argument  against  the  pro- 
scriptive  system  that  it  helps  to  continue  this  shocking 
contest ;  theologian  against  theologian,  polemic  against 
polemic,  until  the  two  madmen  defame  their  common 
parent,  and  expose  their  common  religion.' 

Every  year  the  state  of  feeling  in  Ireland  became 
worse.  As  is  always  the  case,  the  destruction  of  national 
feeling  gave  an  increased  bitterness  to  sectarian  con 
troversy,  and  turned  almost  all  the  energies  of  the 
country  into  that  channel.  The  Eoman  Catholics, 
who  had  formerly  been  almost  passive,  began  to  agitate 
vehemently,  and  to  complain  bitterly  that  Pitt  opposed 
their  emancipation,  tliough  he  had  formerly  professed 
himself  favourable  to  it.  The  Evangelical  movement 
in  Ireland  had  chiefly  assumed  an  aggressive  character, 
and  the  effects  of  the  Eebellion  of  '98  had  not  yet 
subsided.  A  few  years  after  the  Union  there  were  no 
less  than  five  distinct  parties  agitating  actively:  the 
French  party,  who  cherished  the  traditions  of  '98 ; 
the  armed  Orangemen,  who  were  pillaging  in  the 
county  Armagh ;  the  more  pacific  Tories,  who  were 
arguing  against  emancipation ;  the  moderate  Liberals, 
who  followed  Grattan,  and  comprised  a  large  sec- 
tion of  the  Protestants,  and  almost  all  the  higher 
orders  of  Eoman  Catholics ;  and  the  clerical  and  de- 
mocratic party,  which  was  beginning  to  rise  under  tlie 
inspiration  of  O'Connell.  AN^hen  we  add  to  this  that 
the  English  public  was  becoming  thoroughly  per- 
meated by  the  Evangelical  movement,  the  difficulty  of 
Grattan's  position  becomes  very  apparent. 


THE  VETO.  219 

He  determined  to  keep  liimself  entirely  independent. 
He  refused  office  in  Fox's  Ministry,  which  came  in  in 
1806,  and  he  refused  to  accept  4000^.  which  the  Roman 
Catliolics  subscribed  in  the  same  year  to  defray  the 
expenses  of  his  election  for  Dublin.  He  kept  up  a 
correspondence  with  every  section  of  the  Constitutional 
Liberals,  but  he  would  not  place  himself  in  the  hands 
of  any.  In  1807  he  incurred  much  unpopularity  by 
supporting  the  Government  Coercion  Bill,  which  he 
believed  to  be  necessary  on  account  of  the  disorganised 
condition  of  the  country.*  In  1808  he  entered  into 
the  Veto  question.  This  proposition,  which  at  one  time 
created  so  much  agitation,  was  an  attempt  to  produce 
a  compromise ;  the  English  Parliament  consenting  to 
emancipate  the  Catholics,  on  the  condition  that  a 
power  of  veto  was  reserved  to  the  English  Sovereign 
in  the  election  of  Catholic  bishops.  The  proposal  was 
then  much  discussed  and  warmly  accepted  by  the  whole 
body  of  Koman  Catholics  of  England,  by  the  upper 
order  of  tliose  of  Ireland,  and  by  Grattan  himself.  The 
Court  of  Eome  was  very  conciliatory,  and  the  Irish 
bishops  in  1808,  by  tlie  agency  of  Dr.  jNIilncr,  declared 
tlieir  willingness  to  accept  it;  but  they  soon  yielded 
to  the  popular  outcry  and  to  the  influence  of  O'Connell, 
and  under  the  leadership  of  the  same  prelate  vehemently 
opposed  it.  This  produced  a  complete  schism  between 
the  gentry  and  the  clergy,  and  undoubtedly  retarded 
the  triumph  of  the  cause.  In  1813  a  Bill,  accom- 
panied by  the  veto  and  some  minor  securities,  actually 
passed  a  second  reading,  and  was  finally  rejected  by 
a  majority  of  only  four,   but  the   bishops  aftei-wards 

'  lie  said  lie  hoped  to  secure  to  Ireland  a  '  revprsionary  interest  in  the 
constitvition.'  lie  adopted  a  similar  course  in  1814.  The  perfect  courage 
witli  which  Grattan  always  risked  his  popularity  for  what  ho  thought 
the  interest  of  his  country  is  one  of  the  finest  traits  of  his  character. 


220  nENRY   G RATTAN. 

denounced  it.  In  the  following  year  the  Catholic  Board, 
at  the  suggestion  of  O'Connell,  called  upon  Grattan 
to  place  himself  under  their  direction,  and  upon  his 
refusal  took  their  petition  out  of  liis  hands,  and 
entrusted  it  to  Sir  Henry  Parnell. 

It  was  touching  to  see  the  old  statesman  thus  super 
seded  in  the  cause  he  had  served  so  long,  yet  rising 
without  one  word  of  complaint,  of  recrimination,  or  of 
bitterness,  to  support  his  younger  colleague.  The 
more  moderate  party  still  made  him  their  representa- 
tive, and  nothing  in  his  whole  career  is  more  admirable 
tlian  the  good  taste  and  the  self-abnegation  which 
he  manifested  throughout.  He  made  it  a  rule,  as 
he  said,  '  never  to  defend  himself  at  the  expense 
of  his  country,'  and  he  displayed  the  same  zeal 
and  the  same  eloquence  as  when  his  popularity  was 
greatest.  The  ill-feeling  was  at  one  time  so  strong 
that,  after  his  election  for  Dublin  in  1818,  he  was 
nssaulted  by  a  mob  in  the  streets.  All  parties  were 
heartily  ashamed  of  the  act,  and  the  Roman  Catholics 
and  the  Orangemen  reciprocally  charged  each  other 
with  the  guilt.*  Notwithstanding  this  ebullition,  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  he  rose  higher  and  higher  in 
the  estimation  of  the  educated  of  all  parties,  and  that 
the  moderation  and  the  exquisite  tact  he  manifested 
exercised  a  most  powerful  influence  upon  Parliament. 
O'Connell  adopted  an  entirely  different  course  ;  but,  as 
we  shall  see,  O'Connell's  object  was,  in  all  probability, 
a  different  one  ;  and  even  when  opposing  Grattan,  he 
extolled  his  patriotism  in  the  highest  rerms.  A  living 
historian  has  noticed,  on  the  authority  of  Sir  R.  Peel, 
a    curious    indication    of  the   veneration    with  which 

'  Grattan  himself,  when  asked  by  some  English  friends  about  tho 
cause  of  the  riot,  answered:  'It  was  religion — it  was  religion— and 
religion  broke  my  head.' 


nis  DEATH.  221 

Grattan  was  at  this  time  regarded  The  members  who 
had  sat  Avith  him  in  the  Irish  House  of  Commons  were 
accustomed  in  the  English  House  always  to  address 
him  with  a  '  Sir,'  as  they  would  the  Speaker,  and  tliis 
custom  was  followed  by  liOrd  Castlereagh  at  a  time 
when  he  was  the  leader  of  the  House.* 

To  the  Catholic  question  Grattan  devoted  the  en- 
tire energies  of  his  latter  years.  AVith  the  exception 
of  one  very  brilliant  and  very  successful  speech  in 
favour  of  immediate  war  with  France,  in  1815,  he 
never  spoke  at  length  on  any  other  subject.  In  1819 
he  was  defeated  by  a  majority  of  only  two ;  and  in 
1820  he  went  over  to  London,  to  bring  the  subject 
forward  again,  when  the  illness  under  which  he  had 
for  some  time  been  labouring  assumed  a  more  violent 
and  deadly  character.  He  lingered  for  a  few  days, 
retaining  to  the  last  his  full  consciousness  and  interest 
in  public  affiiirs.  Those  who  gathered  around  his 
death-bed  observed  with  emotion  how  fondly  and  how 
constantly  his  mind  revertt^d  to  that  Legislature  whicli 
he  had  served  so  faithfully  and  had  loved  so  well.  It 
seemed  as  though  the  forms  of  its  guiding  spirits  rose 
more  vividly  on  his  mind  as  the  hour  approached  when 
lie  was  to  join  them  in  another  world  ;  and,  among  the 
last  words  he  is  recorded  to  have  uttered,  we  find  a 
warm  and  touching  eulogium  of  his  great  rival.  Flood, 
and  many  glowing  recollections  of  his  fellow-labourers 
in  Ireland.  He  passed  away  tranquilly  and  happily  on 
June  G,  1820.  He  died,  as  a  patriot  might  wish  to 
die,  crowned  with  honours  and  with  years,  with  the 
love  of  friends  and  the  admiration  of  opponents,  leaving 
a  nation  to  deplore  his  loss  and  not  an  enemy  to  obscure 
his  fame. 

It  is  at  the  tombs  of  great  men  that  succeeding 
'  Lord  Muhon's  '  History  of  England.' 


222  IIENRT    G RATTAN. 

generutioiis  kiudle  the  lamp  of  patriotism ;  and  it 
miglit  have  been  supposed  that  he  whose  life  was 
fraught  witli  so  many  weighty  lessons,  and  whose 
memory  possesses  so  deep  a  charm,  would  have  rested 
at  last  in  his  own  land  and  among  his  own  people. 
Another,  and,  as  it  would  seem  to  some,  a  nobler  lot, 
was  reserved  for  Grattan.  A  request  was  made  to  his 
friends  that  his  remains  might  rest  in  Westminster 
Abbey,  and  that  request  was  complied  witli.  He  lies 
near  the  tombs  of  Pitt  and  Fox.  The  place  is  an 
honourable  one,  but  it  was  the  only  honour  that  was 
bestowed  on  liim.  Not  a  bust,  not  an  epitaph  marks 
tlie  spot  where  the  greatest  of  Irish  orators  sleeps ;  but 
one  stately  form  seems  to  bend  in  triumph  over  that 
unnoticed  grave.  It  is  the  statue  of  Castlercagh,  '  the 
statesman  of  the  leo:islative  Union  ' 


DANIEL   O'CONNELL, 

While  the  Union  was  under  discussion  in  the  Irish 
Parliament  no  class  of  persons  exerted  themselves  more 
energetically  in  opposing  it  than  the  Dublin  lawyers. 
Among  the  meetings  they  held  for  this  purpose  there 
was  one  which  assumed  a  peculiar  significance  from  its 
being  composed  entirely  of  Roman  Catholics.  Tliey 
assembled  to  protest  against  the  assertion  that  the 
Roman  Catliolics,  as  a  body,  were  favourable  to  the 
measure ;  to  express  their  opinion  that  it  would  exer- 
cise an  injurious  influence  upon  the  struggle  for  eman- 
cipation; and  to  declare  tliat  were  it  otherwise  they 
did  not  desire  to  purchase  that  boon  at  the  expense  of 
the  independence  of  tlie  nation.  Military  law  was 
tlien  reigning,  and  a  body  of  troops,  under  Major  Sirr, 
were  present  at  the  Exchange  to  watch  the  proceedings. 
It  was  under  these  rather  trying  circumstances  that  a 
young  lawyer,  '  trembling,'  as  he  afterwards  said,  '  at 
tlie  sound  of  his  own  voice,'  rose  to  make  his  maiden 
Bpeech.  He  delivered  a  short  address  against  the  Union, 
which,  if  it  contained  no  very  original  or  striking 
views,  had  at  least  the  merit  of  exhibiting  the  common 
arguments  in  the  clearest  and  most  convincing  light ; 
and  he  shortly  after  hurried  to  a  newspaper-office  to 
deposit  a  copy  for  publication.  This  young  lawyer  was 
Daniel  O'Connell,  the  great  Irish  agitator.  I  confess 
that  it  is  not  without  some  hesitation  that  I  approach 
tliis  part  of  my  subject,  for  the  difficulty  of  painting  the 
character  of  O'Connell  with  fairness  and  impartiality 


224  DANIEL   O'COKNELL. 

can  hardly  be  exaggerated.  '  Never,  perhaps,'  as  has 
been  said,  '  was  there  a  man  at  once  so  hated  and  so 
loved ; '  and  it  may  be  doubted  whetlier  any  public 
man  of  his  time  was  tlie  object  of  so  much  extravagant 
praise  and  blame.  On  the  whole,  however,  the  latter 
greatly  preponderates.  For  many  years  the  entire  press 
of  England,  and  a  large  section  of  that  of  Ireland,  was 
ceaselessly  employed  in  denouncing  him.  All  parties 
in  England  v/ere  combined  against  him,  and  in  Parlia- 
ment he  had  to  Ix^ar  alone  the  assaults  of  statesmen 
and  of  orators  of  the  most  varied  opinions.  By  the 
more  violent  Irish  Protestants  he  v;as  regarded  with 
feelings  of  mingled  hatred  and  terror  that  almost 
amounted  to  a  superstition :  and  the  failure  of  the 
last  great  struggle  of  his  life,  as  well  as  tlic  disastrous 
condition  of  the  country  at  the  time  of  liis  death,  has 
been  very  injurious  to  his  reputation. 

Daniel  O'Connell  was  born  in  the  county  of  Kerry,  in 
the  year  1775.  His  family  was  one  which  had  for  a 
long  time  occupied  a  prominent  position  among  the 
Catholics  of  the  county,  which  was  much  noted  for  its 
national  feeling,  and,  it  must  be  added,  greatly  addicted 
to  smuggling.  It  was  in  after-years  remarked  as  a 
curious  coincidence  tliat  its  crest  bore  the  proud  motto 
'  Oculus  O'Connell  Salus  Hiberniie.'  During  his  boy- 
hood the  penal  laws  were  still  unrepealed,  though  much 
relaxed  in  their  stringency,  and  the  poorer  Poman 
Catholics  had  sunk  into  that  state  of  degradation  which 
compulsory  ignorance  necessarily  produces,  Avhile  the 
richer  drew  their  opinions,  with  their  education,  from 
France.  O'Connell  spent  a  year  at  St.  Omer,  where 
the  principal  predicted  that  he  would  afterwards  dis- 
tinguish himself,  and  he  then  remained  for  a  few 
months  at  the- English  College  of  Douay.  The  Pevo- 
lution  had  at  this  time  shattered  the  French  Church 


ENTERS   INTO   POLITICS.  225 

and  crown,  and  the  minds  of  all  men  were  violently 
agitated  in  its  favour  or  against  it.  O'Connell's 
sympathies  were  strongly  opposed  to  the  movement. 
Like  the  members  of  most  Irish  families  that  had 
adhered  to  tlieir  religion  during  the  penal  laws,  he  was 
deeply  attached  to  it,  politically  and  tlirough  feelings 
of  honour,  if  not  from  higher  motives.  Besides  this, 
the  associations  of  his  college  were  necessarily  clerical; 
and  some  of  the  revolutionary  soldiers,  in  passing 
througli  Douay,  had  heaped  many  insults  on  the 
students.  On  his  retura  to  Ireland  he  found  that  the 
contagion  of  the  Eevolution  had  already  spread,  and 
in  tlie  year  '98,  wlien  he  was  called  to  the  Bar,  rebel- 
lion was  raging  over  the  country.  He  became  a 
member  of  a  yeomanry  corps  which  the  lawyers  had 
formed,  and  was  at  that  time,  as  he  afterwards  con- 
fessed, *  almost  a  Tory.'  Though  he  retained  to  the 
last  his  antipathy  to  rebellion,  his  opinions  in  other 
respects  were  soon  altered  by  the  scandalous  scenes  of 
the  State  trials,  by  the  spectacle  of  the  condition  of 
his  co-religionists,  and  above  all  by  the  circumstance^ 
attending  the  Union. 

The  Eoman  Catholics  had  made  some  inconsiderable 
eflforts  to  influence  public  opinion  by  a  society  for  the 
purpose  of  preparing  petitions  for  Parliament,  and  of 
tliis  society  he  early  became  a  member.  His  extraordi- 
nary eloquence,  his  fertility  of  resources,  his  eagacity 
in  reading  characters  and  in  discerning  opportunities, 
his  boimdless  and  ever  daring  ambition,  soon  made  him 
the  life  of  tliis  society,  and  outweighed  all  the  advan- 
tages of  rank  and  old  services  that  were  sometimes 
opposed  to  his  views.  There  is  much  reason  to  believe 
that  almost  from  the  commencement  of  his  career  lie 
formed  one  vast  scheme  of  policy  which  he  pursued 
tbrcugk    life  with   little   deviation,   and,  it   must  be 


226  DANIEL    O'CONNELL. 

added,  with  little  scruple.  This  scheme  was  to  create 
and  lead  a  public  spirit  among  the  Eoman  Catholics ; 
to  wrest  emancipation  by  this  means  from  the  Govern- 
ment; to  perpetuate  the  agitation  created  for  that 
purpose  till  the  Irish  rarliament  liad  been  restored ; 
to  disendow  the  Established  Church  ;  and  thus  to  open 
in  Ireland  a  new  era,  with  a  separate  and  independent 
Parliament  and  perfect  religious  equality.  It  would 
be  difficult  to  conceive  a  scheme  of  policy  exhibiting 
more  daring  than  this.  The  Roman  Catholics  had 
liithcrto  shown  themselves  absolutely  incompetent  to 
take  any  decisive  part  in  politics.  They  were  not,  it 
is  true,  quite  as  prostrate  as  they  had  been  when  Swift 
so  contemptuously  described  them  as  being  '  altogether 
as  inconsiderable  as  the  women  and  cliildren,  .... 
without  leaders,  without  discipline,  without  natural 
courage,  little  better  than  hewers  of  wood  and  drawers 
of  water,  and  out  of  all  capacity  of  doing  any  mischief 
if  they  were  ever  so  well  inclined ;'  but  yet  the  iron 
of  the  penal  laws  had  entered  into  their  souls,  and 
they  had  always  thrown  themselves  helplessly  on  Pro- 
testant leaders.  Grattan,  it  is  true,  w^as  now  in  tlie 
decline  of  life,  but  Plunket,  who  was  still  in  the 
zenith  of  his  great  powers,  was  ready  to  succeed  him. 
If  the  Poman  Catholics  could  be  braced  up  to  inde- 
pendent exertion  the  noblemen  and  men  of  property  in 
their  ranks  would  be  their  natiu'al  leaders,  and,  at  all 
events,  a  young  lawyer,  dependent  on  his  talents  and 
excluded  from  Parliament  and  from  the  higher  ranks 
of  his  profession,  would  seem  utterly  unfitted  for  such 
a  position.  O'Connell,  however,  perceived  that  it  was 
possible  to  bring  the  whole  mass  of  the  peojile  into 
the  struggle,  and  to  give  them  an  almost  unexampled 
momentum  and  unanimity  by  applying  to  politics  a 
great  power  that  lay  dormant  in  Ireland — the  power  of 


TEE   CATnOLIC   TRIESTnOOD.  227 

the  Catholic  priesthood.  To  make  the  priests  the 
rulers  of  the  country,  and  himself  the  ruler  of  the 
priests,  was  his  first  great  object. 

Few  things  are  more  striking  to  those  who  compare 
the  present  condition  of  Ireland  with  her  past  than 
the  rapidity  with  which  the  power  of  the  priests  has 
augmented  during  the  present  century.  Formerly  they 
were  much  loved  by  their  flocks  but  much  despised  by 
the  Protestants,  and  they  were  contented  with  keeping 
alive  the  spiritual  feeling  of  their  people  without 
taking  any  conspicuous  part  in  politics.  Once  or 
twice,  indeed,  the  bishops  came  forward  to  disclaim 
certain  doctrines  that  were  attributed  to  their  Church, 
and  were  advanced  as  an  argument  against  emancipa- 
tion. Once  or  twice  they  held  meetings  to  further  the 
movement  by  expressing  their  willingness  to  concede 
something  to  procure  the  boon.  If  they  had  taken  a 
certain  part  in  favour  of  the  Union,  it  was  at  the 
desire  of  the  Ministei-s,  and  the  position  of  O'Leary 
was  solely  due  to  the  extreme  beauty  of  his  style. 

Strange  as  it  may  now  appear,  the  j^riests  seem  to 
have  been  at  one  time  most  reluctant  to  enter  into  the 
political  arena,  and  the  whole  agitation  was  frequently 
in  danger  of  perishing  from  very  languor.  There  was 
a  party  supported  by  Keogh,  the  leader  in  '93,  who 
recommended  what  was  called  '  a  dignified  silence ' — in 
other  words,  a  complete  abstinence  from  petitioning 
and  agitation.  With  this  party  O'Connell  successfully 
grappled.  His  advice  on  every  occasion  was,  '  Agitate, 
agitate,  agitate  I '  and  Keogh  was  so  irritated  by  tlie 
defeat  that  he  retired  from  the  society.  But  the 
greatest  of  the  early  triumplis  of  O'Connell  was  on  the 
V^eto  question.  It  is  evident  that  if  the  proposed  com- 
promise were  made,  the  policy  he  had  laid  out  for  himself 
would  be  completely  frustrated.    A  public  spirit  would 


228  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

not  he  formed  amon<>'  the  Roman  Catholics  hy  a  pro- 
traeted  strugi^lc.  Emancipation  ■would  he  a  boon  that 
was  conceded,  not  a  triumph  that  v."as  won  ;  and  tlic 
episcopacy  would  he  in  a  measure  dependent  upon  the 
Crown.  In  the  course  of  the  contest  almost  every 
element  of  power  seemed  against  him.  The  bishops, 
both  in  1799  and  in  1808,  had  declared  themselves  in 
favour  of  the  veto.  The  English  lioman  Catholics  led 
by  INIr.  Butler,  the  upper  order  of  those  of  Ireland  led 
by  Lord  Fingall,  and  the  Protestant  Liberals  led  by 
Grattan,  warmly  supported  it.  Shell,  who  was  tho- 
roughly identified  with  the  democratic  party,  and  whose 
wonderful  rhetorical  powers  gave  him  an  extraor- 
dinary influence,  wrote  and  spoke  in.  favour  of  com- 
])romise ;  and,  to  crown  all,  ]Monsignor  Quarantotti, 
who  in  a  great  mcasiu'e  managed  affairs  at  Rome  during 
11)0  captivity  of  Pius  VII.,  exhorted  the  bishops  to 
accept  it.  Over  all  these  obstacles  O'Connell  triumphed, 
lie  succeeded  in  persuading  or  forcing  the  bisliops 
into  violent  opposition  to  the  scheme,  and  in  throwing 
them  on  the  support  of  the  people.  Dr.  Milner  wrote 
against  the  veto,  and  was  accordingly  censured  by  the 
English  Roman  Catholics  ;  but  O'Connell  induced  those 
of  Ireland  to  support  him.  Grattan  refused  to  place 
liiniself  in  tlie  hands  of  the  Catholic  committee,  and 
the  jietition  was  immediately  taken  out  of  his  hands. 
Lord  Fingall,  Sir  E.  liellew,  and  a  few  other  leading 
Catholics,  would  not  yield,  and  were  obliged  to  form  a 
separate  society,  which  soon  sank  into  insignificance. 
Shell  was  answered  by  O'Connell,  and  the  answer  was 
accepted  by  the  people  as  conclusive  ;  and,  finally,  the 
rescript  of  Quarantotti  was  disobeyed  by  the  bishops 
and  disavowed  by  the  Pope.  The  results  of  the  con- 
troversy were  probably  by  no  means  beneficial  to  the 
country,  but  they  at  least  served  in  an  eminent  degree 


EARLY    REPEAL   MOVEMENTS.  229 

the  purposes  of  the  agitator.  The  clergy  were  brought 
actiTely  into  politics.  The  lower  orders  were  stirred 
to  the  very  depths,  and  O'Connell  was  triumphant  over 
all  rivals. 

In  the  course  of  this  controversy  it  was  frequently 
urged  that  O'Connell's  policy  retarded  emancipation. 
This  objection  he  met  with  characteristic  frankness. 
He  avowed  himself  repeatedly  to  be  an  agitator  with 
an  'ulterior  object,'  and  declared  that  that  object  was 
the  repeal  of  the  Union.  '  Desiring,  as  I  do,  the  repeal 
of  the  Union,'  he  said  in  one  of  his  speeches,  in  1813, 
'  I  rejoice  to  see  how  our  enemies  promote  that  great 
object.  Yes,  they  promote  its  inevitable  success  by 
their  very  hostility  to  Ireland.  They  delay  the  liberties 
of  the  Catholics,  but  they  compensate  us  most  amply 
because  they  advance  the  restoration  of  Ireland.  By 
leaving  one  cause  of  agitation,  they  have  created,  and 
they  will  embody  and  give  shape  and  form  to,  a  public 
mind  and  a  public  spirit.'  In  1811,  at  a  political 
dinner,  he  spoke  to  the  toast  of  Eepeal,  which  had 
been  given  at  his  suggestion,  and  he  repeatedly  re- 
verted to  the  subject.  Nothing  can  be  more  untrue 
than  to  represent  the  Ixcpeal  agitation  as  a  mere  after- 
thouglit  designed  to  sustain  liis  flagging  popularity. 
Xor  can  it  be  said  tliat  tlie  project  was  first  started  by 
liim.  The  deep  indignation  that  tlie  Union  had  produced 
in  Ireland  was  fermenting  among  all  classes,  and  assum- 
ing the  form,  sometimes  of  j*  Ju'cncli  party,  sometimes  of 
a  social  war,  and  sometimes  of  a  constitutional  agitation. 
The  Kepeal  agitation  directed,  but  did  not  create,  the 
national  feeling.  It  merely  gave  it  a  distinct  form,  a 
steady  action,  and  a  constitutional  character.  In  1810 
a  very  remarkable  movement  in  tliis  direction  took  place 
in  Dublin.  The  grand  jury  passed  a  resolution  declar- 
ing that  '  the   Union  had  produced  an    accumulation 


230  DANIEL    O'CONNELL. 

of  distress;  and  that,  instead  of  cementing,  they 
feared  that  if  not  repealed  it  might  endanger  the  con- 
nection between  the  sister  countries.'  In  the  same  year 
a  meeting  communicated  on  the  subject  with  Grattan, 
who  was  member  for  the  city.  Grrattan  replied  that  a 
Ecpeal  agitation  could  only  be  successful  if  supported 
by  the  people  ;  that  if  that  support  were  given,  he 
would  be  ready  to  advocate  the  movement ;  and  that 
he  considered  such  a  course  perfectly  consonant  with 
devoted  attachment  to  the  connection.*  Lord  Clon- 
curry  relates  that  he  was  a  member  of  a  deputation 
which  on  another  occasion  waited  on  Grattan,  and  tliat 
Grattan  said  to  them,  '  Gentlemen,  the  best  advice  I 
can  give  my  fellow-citizens  upon  every  occasion  is  to 
keep  knocking  at  the  Union.' 

The  prominent  position  O'Connell  had  assumed  in 
politics  naturally  exercised  a  fiivourable  influence  upon 
his  professional  career,  so  that  he  became  by  far  the 
most  popular  counsel  in  Ireland,  and  was  invariably 
employed  in  all  those  cases  which  involved  political 

'  G rattan's  letter  is  so  remarkable  that  I  give  it  in  full.  It  will  Lo 
funnd  in  his  Life,  by  his  son  : 

'  Gentlempn, — I  had  the  honour  to  receive  an  address,  presented  by 
your  committee,  and  expressive  of  their  uishes  that  I  should  present 
certain  petitions  and  support  the  repeal  of  an  Act  entitled  the  "  Act  of 
Union,"  and  j-our  committee  adds,  that  it  speaks  with  the  authority  of 
my  constituents,  the  freemen  and  freeholders  of  the  City  of  Dublin.  I 
beg  to  assure  your  committee,  and  through  them  my  much  beloved  and 
much  respected  constituents,  that  I  shall  accede  to  their  proposition. 
I  shall  present  their  petitions  and  support  the  repeal  of  the  Act  of 
Union  with  a  decided  attachment  to  our  connection  with  Great  Britain, 
and  to  that  harmony  between  the  two  countries,  without  which  the 
connection  cannot  last.  I  do  net  impair  either,  as  I  apprehend,  when 
I  assure  you  that  I  shall  support  the  repeal  of  the  Act  of  Union.  You 
will  please  to  observe  that  a  proposition  of  that  sort  in  Parliament,  to 
bo  either  prudent  or  possible,  must  wait  until  it  should  be  called  for 
and  backed  by  the  nation.  When  proposed,  I  shall  then,  as  at  all 
otlier  times  I  hope  I  shall,  prove  myself  an  Irishman,  and  that  Irishman 
whose  fir.'t  and  last  passion  was  his  native  country.' 


SUCCESS    AT   THE   BAR.  231 

or  religious  considerations.  There  have  been  a  few 
lawyers  of  deeper  knowledge,  and  even  of  more  power- 
ful eloquence,  though  he  ranked  extremely  high  in 
both  respects ;  but  never,  perhaps,  was  there  a  man 
more  admirably  calculated  to  excel  at  the  Irish  Bar. 
His  unrivalled  knowledge  of  the  Irish  character ;  his 
sagacity  in  detecting  the  weaknesses  of  the  judges, 
jurymen,  and  witnesses  ;  the  wonderful  dexterity  with 
which  he  could  avail  himself  of  any  legal  quibble  or 
ambiguity;  and  the  unblushing  audacity  with  which  he 
could  confront  any  opponent,  enabled  him  quickly  to 
distance  all  competitors.  It  is  difficult  for  those  who 
are  habituated  only  to  the  law-courts  of  England  to 
conceive  the  vast  difference  in  this  respect  between  the 
two  countries.  The  diflference  of  the  characters  of  the 
two  nations  is  nowhere  more  apparent,  and,  besides 
tliis,  the  proceedings  of  the  Irish  law-courts  have  ever 
been  deeply  tinged  witli  religious  and  political  con- 
siderations. In  appointments  of  judges  and  of  law- 
officers  the  first  question  asked  by  the  public  seems 
to  be  their  religion,  tlie  second  their  politics,  the 
last  tlieir  legal  knowledge ;  and  the  scandal  of  mere 
party  judges  has  been  both  more  frequent  and  more 
recent  in  Ireland  than  in  England.  Besides  this, 
an  unusual  proportion  of  tlie  leading  politicians  of 
Ireland  have  been  practising  barristers,  and  the  temp- 
tation of  making  a  trial  on  a  question  of  tithes,  or 
tenant-right,  or  libel,  an  occasion  for  a  brilliant  display, 
was  irresistible  both  to  the  politician  and  to  the  orator. 
As  trials  of  this  nature  were  continually  occurring,  and 
as  their  exclusion  from  the  inner  bar  and  from  the 
bench  gave  the  Koman  Catholics  a  tenfold  virulence, 
the  scenes  which  took  place  at  the  Four  Courts  during 
the  earlier  part  of  the  century  may  be  more  easily 
conceived  than  described.     O'Connell  always  defended 


232  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

the  excessive  violence  of  his  language,  both  at  the  Bar 
and  on  the  platform,  on  the  ground  of  tlie  peculiar 
position  of  the  Roman  Catholics.  He  said  tliat  he  had 
found  his  co-religionists  as  broken  in  spirit  as  they 
were  in  fortune ;  that  tliey  had  adopted  the  tone  of 
the  weakest  mendicants ;  that  they  seemed  ever  fearful 
of  wearying  the  dominant  caste  by  their  importunit}', 
and  that  they  were  utterly  unmindful  of  their  power 
and  of  their  rignts.  His  most  difficult  task  was  to 
persuade  them  of  their  strength,  and  to  teach  them 
to  regard  themselves  as  the  equals  of  their  fellow- 
countrymen.  The  easiest  way  of  breaking  the  spell 
was  to  adopt  a  defiant  and  an  overbearing  tone.  The 
spectacle  of  a  Eoman  Catholic  fearlessly  assailing  the 
hii!:hest  in  the  land  with  the  fiercest  invective  and  tlie 
most  unceremonious  ridicule,  was  eminently  calculated 
to  invigorate  a  cowering  people.  A  tone  of  extreme 
violence  was  the  best  corrective  for  a  spirit  of  extreme 
servility. 

Tliere  is  undoubtedly  some  truth  in  these  considera- 
tions, and  they  extenuate  not  a  little  the  language 
of  O'Connell ;  but  they  are  certainly  far  from  justi- 
fying it,  either  morally  or  politically.  The  ceaseless 
torrent  of  the  coarsest  abuse  which  at  every  period 
of  his  life,  and  in  every  sphere  in  which  he  moved,  he 
poured  upon  all  opponents  ;  the  rapidity  with  which  he 
passed,  on  a  very  small  provocation,  from  a  tone  of  the 
most  hyperbolical  praise  to  language  that  was  worthy 
of  Billingsgate  ;  and  the  virulence  with  which  he 
!ittacked  some  of  the  most  illustrious  characters  in  the 
country,  prejudiced  all  moderate  men  against  him.  It 
was  said  of  him  that  his  mind  consisted  of  two  com- 
partments— the  one  inliabited  by  the  purest  angels,  and 
the  other  by  the  vilest  demons — and  that  the  occupation 
of  his  life  was  to  transfer  his  friends  from  the  one  to 


niS  TIOLENT   LANGUAGE.  233 

the  other.  A  man  who  did  not  hesitate  to  describe  the 
I)uke  of  \A'ellington  as  '  a  stunted  corporal,'  and  who 
applied  to  other  opponents  such  terms  as  '  a  mighty 
big  liar,'  or  'a  lineal  descendant  of  the  impenitent 
thief,' or  'a  titled  buffoon,'  or  'a  contumelious  cur,' 
or  '  a  pig,'  or  '  a  scorpion,'  or  'an  indescribable  wretch,' 
placed  himself  beyond  the  pale  of  courtesy.  The  abuse 
he  at  one  period  of  his  life  poured  upon  the  Whigs 
embarrassed  him  during  all  the  later  part  of  his  careei-, 
and  he  drew  down  upon  himself  the  formal  reprimand 
of  the  House  of  Commons  by  accusing  the  Tory  mem- 
bers on  election  committees  of  'foul  perjury.'  Such 
language  could  hardly  fail  to  lower  the  character  of 
the  movement,  and  it  especially  weakened  his  position 
when  he  became  a  member  of  Parliament.  That  tone 
of  gentlemanly  moderation,  that  well-bred,  pungent 
raillery  which  is  so  characteristic  of  the  English  Par- 
liament, and  has  been  brouglit  to  the  greatest  perfec- 
tion by  Lord  Palmerston,  has  oft^n  proved  a  more 
efficient  weapon  of  debate  than  the  most  splendid 
eloquence  or  the  most  trenchant  wit.  It  draws  a  magic 
circle  around  the  speaker,  which  only  similar  weapons 
can  penetrate,  and  it  seldom  fails  to  secure  the  atten- 
tion and  the  respect  of  the  public. 

Tlie  greatest  speeches  of  0"Connell  at  the  Bar  were 
in  defence  of  Magee,  the  editor  of  the  '  Evening  Post,' 
who  had  libelled  the  Buke  of  Kichmond.  They  consist 
chiefly  of  an  invective  against  Saurin,  the  Attorney- 
General,  as  the  representative  of  tlie  Orange  party,  and 
were  so  violent  that  the  publication  of  one  of  them 
was  pronounced  to  be  an  aggravation  of  the  original 
libel.  In  point  of  eloquence,  however,  they  rank  very 
high ;  but  they  are  almost  exclusively  political,  for  the 
case  of  his  client  was  a  hopeless  one.  The  principal 
success  of  O'Connell  at  the   Ear  was,  perhaps,  not  in 


234  DANIEL    O  CONNELL. 

oratory,  but  in  cross-examining.  He  had  paid  special 
attention  to  this  department,  which  naturally  fell,  in  a 
great  measure,  to  the  Koman  Catholic  lawyers  at  a 
time  when  they  were  excluded  from  the  inner  bar ;  and 
he  brought  it  to  a  degree  of  perfection  almost  unpa- 
ralleled in  Ireland.  His  wonderful  insight  into  cha- 
racter, and  tact  in  managing  different  temperaments, 
enabled  him  to  unravel  the  intricacies  of  deceit  witli 
a  rapidity  and  a  certainty  that  seemed  miraculous,  and 
liis  biographies  are  full  of  almost  incredible  illustra- 
tions of  his  skill. ^ 

It  would  be  tedious  to  follow  into  minute  detail  the 
difficulties  and  the  mistakes  tliat  obstructed  the  Catho- 
lic movement,  and  were  finally  overcome  by  the  energy 
or  the  tact  of  O'Connell.  For  some  time  the  gravest 
fears  were  entertained  that  the  Pope  would  pronounce 
in  favour  of  the  veto.  A  strong  party  at  Eome,  headed 
by  Cardinal  Gonsalvi,  was  known  to  advocate  it,  and 
tlie  deputy  of  the  Irish  bishops  adopted  so  importunate 
a  tone  that  he  was  peremptorily  dismissed,  and  pro- 
nounced by  his  Holiness  to  be  'intolerable.'  Innu- 
merable dissensions  dislocated  the  movement,  and 
demanded  all  the  efforts  of  O'Connell  to  appease  them. 
^^'hen  the  Roman  Catholic  gentry  had  seceded,  a  mul- 
titude of  those  eccentric  characters  w^ho  are  ever  ready 
to  embark  in  agitation  from  the  mere  spirit  of  adven- 
ture assumed  a  dangerous  prominence,  and  it  was 
found  necessary  to  adopt  a  most  despotic  tone  to  repress 
them.  The  hopes  that  were  entertained  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales  produced  a  great  deal  of  gross  and  vulgar 
flattery,  and  in  1812,  when  the  change  in  his  senti- 
ments became  known,  some  most  injudicious  resolutions, 
ascribing  it  to   'the  fatal   witchery  of   an   unworthy 

*  See  eapocially  Mr.  O'Xeil  Paunt's  very  interesting  '  Personal  He- 
collections  of  0  Couuell.' 


AGITATION   FOR  EMANCirATION.  235 

secret  influence.'  When  he  visited  Ireland  after  his 
coronation,  the  unbounded  sycophancy  of  some  of  the 
Orangemen  on  one  side,  and  of  O'Connell  on  the  other, 
went  far  to  justify  the  somewhat  strange  saying  of  Swift, 
that  '  loyalty  is  the  foible  of  the  Irish.'  Lord  Byron, 
who  took  a  strong  interest  in  tlie  Catholic  cause,  which 
he  defended  in  the  House  of  Lords,  was  justly  indig- 
nant, and  branded  the  conduct  of  O'Connell  with  great 
severity  in  the  '  Irish  Avatar.' 

In  1815  O'Connell  fought  a  duel  with  a  gentleman 
named  D'Esterre,  which  was  attended  by  some  very 
painful  circumstances,  and  gave  rise  to  much  subse- 
quent discussion.  It  arose  out  of  the  epithet '  beggarly' 
which  O'Connell  had  applied  to  the  corporation  of 
Dublin.  D'Esterrc  was  killed  at  the  first  shot.  In  the 
same  year  Mr,  Peel  had  challenged  O'Connell,  on 
account  of  some  violent  expressions  he  had  employed. 
O'Connell,  however,  was  very  opportunely  arrested  at 
his  wife's  information,  and  bound  over  to  keep  the 

peace. 

Several  times  the  movement  was  menaced  by  Govern- 
ment proclamations  and  prosecutions.  Its  great  diffi- 
culty was  to  bring  the  public  opinion  of  the  whole 
body  of  the  Roman  Catholics  actively  and  habitually 
into  the  question.  The  skill  and  activity  of  O'Connell 
in  arousing  tli'^  people  were  beyond  all  praise,  and 
the  consciousness  of  the  presence  of  a  great  leader  be- 
jran  to  spread  through  the  whole  mass  of  the  ignorant, 
dispirited,  and  dependent  Catholics.  All  preceding 
movements  since  the  Revolution  (except  the  passing 
excitement  about  Wood's  halfpence)  had  been  chiefly 
amon<^  the  Protestants  or  among  the  higher  order  of 
the  Catholics.  The  mass  of  the  people  had  taken  no 
veal  interest  in  politics,  had  felt  no  real  pain  at  their 
disabilities,   and   were    politically   the  willing   slaves 


fi36 

of  their  landlords.  For  the  first  time,  under  •  the 
influence  of  O'Connell,  the  great  swell  of  a  really  de- 
mocratic movement  was  felt.  The  simplest  way  of 
concentratinfjj  the  new  enthusiasm  would  have  been  by 
a  system  of  delegates,  but  this  had  been  rendered  ille- 
gal by  tlie  Convention  Act.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
right  of  petitioning  was  one  of  the  fundamental  privi- 
leges of  the  constitution.  By  availing  himself  of  this 
right  O'Connell  contrived,  with  the  dexterity  of  a  prac- 
tised lawyer,  to  violate  continually  the  spirit  of  the 
Convention  Act,  while  keeping  within  the  letter  of  the 
law.  Proclamation  after  proclamation  was  launched 
against  his  society,  but  by  conti.'iually  changing  its 
name  and  its  form  he  generally  succeeded  in  evading 
the  prosecutions  of  the  Grovernment. 

These  early  societies,  liowever,  all  sink  into  insigni- 
ficance compared  with  that  great  Catholic  Association 
which  was  formed  in  1824.  The  avowed  objects  of  this 
society  were  to  promote  religious  education,  to  ascer- 
tain the  numerical  strength  of  the  different  religions, 
and  to  answer  the  charges  against  the  Roman  Catholics 
embodied  in  the  hostile  petitions.  It  also  recoininended 
petitions  (unconnected  with  the  society)  from  every 
parisli,  and  aggregate  meetings  in  every  county.  The 
real  object  was  to  form  a  gigantic  system  of  organisa- 
tion, ramifying  over  the  entire  country,  and  directed  in 
every  parish  by  the  priests,  for  the  purpose  of  peti- 
tioning and  in  every  other  way  agitating  in  favour  of 
emancipation.  The  Catholic  Rent  was  instituted  at 
this  time,  and  it  formed  at  once  a  powerful  instrument 
of  cohesion  and  a  faithful  barometer  of  the  popular 
feeling.  It  is  curious  that  at  the  first  two  meetings 
O'Connell  w^-is  unable  to  obtain  the  attendance  of  ten 
members  to  form  a  quorum.  On  the  third  day  the 
same  difficully  .-it  first  'occurred,  but  O'Connell  at  length 


snriL.  237 

induced  two  Mayiiootli  students  who  were  passing  to 
make  up  the  requisite  number,  and  the  introduction  of 
this  clerical  element  set  the  machine  in  motion.  Very 
Boon,  however,  the  importance  of  the  new  society 
became  manifest.  Almost  tlie  whole  priesthood  of 
Ireland  were  actively  engaged  in  its  service,  and  it 
threatened  to  overawe  every  other  authority  in  the 
land.  In  the  elections  of  1826  sacerdotal  influence 
was  profoundly  felt ;  and  the  defeat  of  the  Beresfords 
in  the  Catholic  county  of  Waterford,  in  which,  in  spite 
of  their  violent  anti-Catholicism,  they  had  for  genera- 
tions been  supreme,  foreshadowed  clearly  the  coming 
change.  Tlie  people  were  organised  with  unprece- 
dented rapidity,  and  O'Connell  and  Shell  traversed  the 
country  in  all  directions  to  address  them. 

Though  both  were  marvellously  successful  in  swaying 
and  in  fascinating  the  multitude,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  conceive  a  greater  contrast  tlian  was  presented  by 
their  styles. 

Richard  Lalor  Shell  forms  one  of  the  many  exam- 
ples of  splendid  oratorical  powers  clogged  by  insu- 
perable natural  defects.  His  person  was  diminutive, 
and  wholly  devoid  of  dignity  ;  his  voice  shrill,  harsh, 
and  often  rising  into  a  positive  shriek  ;  his  action, 
tliough  indicative  of  an  intense  earnestness,  violent 
without  gracefulness,  and  eccentric  even  to  absurdity. 
He  had  distinguished  himself  as  a  poet  and  a  dramatist ; 
and  it  was,  perhaps,  in  consequence  of  the  habits  he 
acquired  in  those  fields  that  his  speeches,  though 
extremely  beautiful  as  compositions,  were  always  a 
little  overcharged  with  ornament,  and  a  little  too  care- 
fully elaborated.  They  seem  exactly  to  fulfil  Burke's 
description  of  perfect  oratory,  '  half  poetry,  half  prose  ;' 
yet  we  feel  that  their  ornaments,  however  beautiful  in 
themselves,  offend  by  tlieir  profusion.     Two  very  high 


238  DANIEL   0'C0N>^ELL. 

excellences  he  possessed  to  a  pre-eminent  degree — the 
power  of  combining  extreme  preparation  with  the 
greatest  passion,  and  of  blending  argument  with  decla- 
mation. There  are  very  few  speakers  from  whom  it 
would  be  possible  to  cite  so  many  passages  with  all  the 
sustained  rhythm  and  flow  of  declamation,  yet  consist- 
ing wholly  of  condensed  arguments.  He  was  a  great 
master  of  irony,  and,  unlike  O'Connell,  could  adapt  it 
either  to  a  vulgar  or  to  a  refined  audience.  He  had 
but  little  readiness,  and  almost  always  prepared  the 
language  as  well  as  the  substance  of  his  speeches ;  but 
lie  seems  to  have  carefully  followed  the  example  of 
Cicero  in  studying  the  case  of  his  opponents  as  fully  as 
his  own,  and  was  thus  enabled  to  anticipate  with  great 
accuracy  the  course  of  the  debate.  He  was  more  cal- 
culated to  please  than  to  move,  and  to  dazzle  than  to 
convince. 

In  almost  every  respect  O'Connell  differed  from  Sheil. 
Had  he  been  a  man  of  second-rate  talent,  he  would 
have  imitated  some  of  the  great  orators  who  adorned 
the  Irish  Parliament ;  he  would  have  studied  epigram 
like  Grattan,  or  irony  like  Plunket,  or  polished  decla- 
mation like  Curran.  Ho  seems,  however,  to  have  early 
felt  that  neither  the  character  of  his  mind  nor  the 
career  he  had  chosen  were  propitious  for  these  forms  of 
eloquence,  while  he  was  eminently  fitted  to  excel  in 
other  ways.  He  possessed  a  voice  of  almost  unexampled 
perfection.  Eising  with  an  easy  and  melodious  swell, 
it  filled  the  largest  building  and  triumphed  over  the 
wildest  tumult,  while  at  the  same  time  it  conveyed 
every  inflection  of  feeling  with  the  most  delicate  flexi- 
bility. It  was  equally  suited  for  impassioned  appeal, 
for  graphic  narration,  and  for  sweeping  the  finer  chords 
of  pathos  and  of  sensibility.  He  had  studied  carefully 
that  consummate  mastcj-  of   elocution  William   Pitt, 


HIS   ELOQUENCE.  239 

and  ho  had  acquired  an  almost  equal  skill.  No  one 
knew  better  how  to  pass  from  impetuous  denunciation 
to  a  tone  of  subdued  but  thrilling  tenderness.  No  one 
quoted  poetry  with  greater  feeling  and  eflfect ;  no  one 
had  more  completely  mastered  the  art  of  adapting  his 
voice  to  his  audience,  and  of  terminating  a  long 
sentence  without  effort  and  without  feebleness.  His 
action  was  so  easy,  natural,  and  suited  to  his  subject, 
that  it  almost  escaped  the  notice  of  the  observer.  His 
language  was  clear,  nervous,  and  fluent,  but  often  in- 
correct, and  scarcely  ever  polished.  Having  but  little 
of  the  pride  of  a  rhetorician,  he  subordinated  strictly 
all  other  considerations  to  the  end  he  was  seeking  to 
achieve,  and  readily  sacrificed  every  grace  of  style 
in  order  to  produce  an  immediate  effect.  'A  great 
speech,'  he  used  to  say,  is  a  very  fine  thing ;  but,  after 
all,  the  verdict  is  the  thing.'  As  Shell  complained, 
'  he  often  threw  out  a  brood  of  sturdy  young  ideas 
upon  the  world  without  a  rag  to  cover  them.'  He  had 
no  dread  of  vulgar  expressions,  coarse  humour,  or  un- 
dignified illustrations ;  but  at  the  same  time  he  seldom 
failed  to  make  a  visible  impression ;  for,  in  addition  to 
the  intrinsic  power  of  his  eloquence,  he  possessed  in 
the  highest  degi'ee  the  tact  which  detects  the  weak- 
nesses and  prejudices  of  his  audience  and  the  skill 
which  adapts  itself  to  their  moods.  His  readiness  in 
reply  was  boundless,  his  arguments  were  stated  with 
masterly  force,  and  his  narrative  was  always  lucid 
and  vivid.  If  he  endeavoured  to  become  eloquent  by 
preparation,  he  grew  turgid  and  bombastic ;  if  he  relied 
exclusively  on  the  feelings  of  the  moment,  he  of^en 
rose  to  a  strain  of  masculine  beauty  that  was  all  the 
more  forcible  from  its  being  evidently  un prepared. 
His  bursts  of  passion  displayed  that  freshness  and 
genuine  character  that  art  can  so  seldom  counterfeit. 


240  DANIEL    O'CONNELL. 

The  listener  seemed  almost  to  follow  the  workings  of 
liis  mind — to  perceive  him  liewing  liis  thoughts  into 
rhetoric  with  a  negligent  but  colossal  grandeur  ;  with 
the  chisel,  not  of  a  Canova,  but  of  a  Michael  Angelo. 
Were  we  to  analyse  the  pleasure  we  derive  from  the 
speeches  of  a  brilliant  orator,  we  should  probably  find 
that  one  great  source  is  this  constant  perception  of  an 
ever-recurring  difficulty  skilfully  overcome.  \N'ith  some 
speakers  appropriate  language  flows  forth  in  such  a 
rapid  and  unbroken  stream  that  the  charm  of  art  is 
lost  by  its  very  perfection.  With  others  the  difficulties  of 
expression  are  so  painfully  exhibited  or  so  imperfectly 
overcome  that  we  listen  with  feelings  of  apprehension 
and  of  pity.  But  when  the  happy  medium  is  attained — 
when  the  idea  that  is  to  be  conveyed  is  present  for  a 
moment  to  the  listener's  thought  before  it  is  moulded 
into  the  stately  period — the  music  of  each  balanced 
sentence  acquires  an  additional  charm  from  our  per- 
ception of  the  labour  that  produced  it.  In  addressing 
the  populace  the  great  talents  of  O'Connell  shone  forth 
with  their  full  resplendency.  Such  an  audience  alone 
is  susceptible  of  the  intense  feelings  the  orator  seeks 
to  convey,  and  over  such  an  audience  O'Connell  exer- 
cised an  unbounded  influence.  Tens  of  thousands 
hung  entranced  upon  his  accents,  melted  into  tears  or 
convulsed  with  laughter — fired  with  the  most  impas- 
sioned and  indignant  enthusiasm,  yet  so  restrained 
that  not  an  act  of  riot  or  of  lawlessness,  not  a  scene  of 
drunkenness  or  of  disorder,  resulted  from  those  vast 
assemblies.  His  genius  was  more  wonderful  in  con- 
trolling than  in  exciting,  and  there  was  no  chord  of 
feeling  that  he  could  not  strike  with  power.  Other 
orators  studied  rhetoric — O'Connell  studied  man. 

If  we  compare  the  two  speakers,  I  should  say  that 
before  an  uneducated  audience  O'Connell  was  wholly 


rnOGRESS   OF   THE    ASSOCIATION.  241 

unrivalled,  while  before  an  educated  audience  Sheil 
was  most  fitted  to  please  and  O'Connell  to  convince. 
Both  were  powerful  reasoners,  but  the  arguments  of 
O'Connell  stood  in  bold  and  clear  relief,  while  the 
attention  was  somewhat  diverted  from  those  of  Sheil 
by  the  ornaments  and  mannerism  that  accompanied 
them.  Both  possessed  great  powers  of  ridicule,  but  in 
O'Connell  it  assumed  the  form  of  coarse  but  genuine 
humour,  and  in  Sheil  of  refined  and  pungent  wit.  By 
too  great  preparation  Shell's  speeches  displayed  some- 
times an  excess  of  brilliancy.  By  elaborate  preparation 
O'Connell  occasionally  fell  into  bombast.  O'Connell  was 
much  the  greater  debater,  Sheil  was  much  the  greater 
master  of  composition.  O'Connell  possessed  the  more 
vigorous  intellect,  and  Sheil  the  more  correct  taste. 

The   success   of  the    Catholic   Association    became 
every  week   more    striking.       The  rent  rose  with  an 
extraordinary  rapidity.     Tiie  meetings  in  every  county 
grew   more    and   more   enthusiastic,    the    triumph   of 
priestly  influence  more  and  more  certain.    The  Grovern- 
ment  made  a  feeble  and  abortive  effort  to  arrest  the 
storm  by  threatening  both  O'Connell  and  Sheil  with 
prosecution    for   certain    passages    in    their   speeches. 
Tlie  sentence  cited  from  O'Connell  was  one  in  which 
he   expressed   a   hope   that   '  if  Ireland   were   driven 
mad  by  persecution  a  new  Bolivar  miglit  arise,'  but 
the  employment  of  this  language  was  not  clearly  esta- 
blished, and   the  Bill  was   thrown  out.     The  speech 
which  was  to  have  drawn  a  prosecution  upon  Sheil  was 
a  kind  of  dissertation  upon  '  Wolfe  Tone's  Memoirs 
of  which  Canning  afterwards  said  that  it  might  ha^ 
been  delivered  in  Parliament  without  even  eliciting 
call   to   order.      The  Attorney-General  was  Plunke 
who   by   this   act   completed   the   destruction   of  h 
influence  in  Ireland.      Sheil  asked  him,  as  a  sing 
12 


242  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

favour,  to  conduct  the  prosecution  in  person.  Had 
he  done  so,  Sheil  intended  to  cite  the  passages  from 
Plunket's  speeches  on  the  Union,  which  at  least  equalled 
in  violence  any  that  the  Repealers  ever  delivered.  The 
dissolution  of  the  Government  prevented  the  intended 
prosecution. 

One  very  serious  consequence  of  the  resistance  to  the 
demand  for  emancipation  was  the  strengthening  of  the 
sympathy  between  Ireland  and  France.     The  French 
education  of  many  of  the  Irish  priests,  and  the  pro- 
minent  position    of  France   among   Eoman   Catholic 
nations,  had  naturally  elicited  and  sustained  it.     The 
sagacity  of  O'Connell  readily  perceived  what  a  powerful 
auxiliary  foreign  opinion  would  be  to  his  cause  ;  and 
by  sending  the  resolutions  of  the  association  to  Catholic 
Governments,  by  translations  of  the  debates,  and  by  a 
series  of  French  letters  written  by  Sheil,  the  feeling 
was  constantly  fanned.     Many  Irishmen  have  believed 
that  the  existence  of  this   sympathy  is   an  evil.      I 
confess  I  can  hardly  think  so.     Irishmen  should  never 
forget  how,  in  the  hour  of  their  deepest  distress,  when 
their  energies  were  paralysed  by  a  persecuting  code, 
and  their  land  was  wasted  by  confiscation  and  war, 
France  opened  her  ranks  to  receive  them,  and  afforded 
them  the  opportunities  of  honour  and  distinction  they 
were  denied  at  home.     Gratitude  to  the  French  nation 
is  a  sentiment  in  which  both  Irish  Catholics  and  Irish 
Protestants  may  cordially  concur.     The  first  will  ever 
look  back  with  pride  to  the  achievements  of  the  Irish 
brigade,  which  threw  a  ray  of  light  over  the  gloomiest 
period  of  their  depression.      The  second   should  not 
wholly  forget  that  to  the  enterprise  of  French  refugees 
is  due  a  large  part  of  the  manufactures  which  consti- 
tute a  main  element  of  their  prosperity.     Nor  is  it 
possible  for  any  patriotic  Irishman  to  contrast  without 


FRENCH  STMrATHIES.  243 

.•motion  the  tone  which  has  been  adopted  towards  his 
country  by  some  of  the  most  eminent  writers  of  France 
with  the  studied  depreciation  of  the  Irish  character  by 
some  of  the  most  popular  authors  and  by  a  large 
section  of  the  press  of  England.  The  character  of  a 
nation  is  its  most  precious  possession,  and  it  is  to  such 
writers  as  Montalembert  and  Gustave  de  Beaumont 
that  it  is  mainly  due  that  Ireland  has  still  many 
sympathisers  on  the  Continent. 

But  in  addition  to  these  considerations  there  are 
others  of  much  weight  that  may  be  alleged.  One 
of  the  most  important  intellectual  advantages  of 
Catliolicism  is,  that  the  constant  international  commu- 
nication it  produces  corrects  insular  modes  of  thought, 
and  it  has  been  of  no  small  benefit  to  Irishmen  that 
th 'V  liave  never  been  altogether  without  some  tincture 
of  I''i<  ncli  culture.  In  the  worst  period  of  the  last 
century  tliis  was  secured  by  the  French  education  of 
the  priests ;  and,  in  spite  of  geographical  position 
and  of  penal  laws,  a  certain  current  of  continental 
ideas  lias  always  been  perceptible  among  the  people. 
Tlie  spirit  of  French  Catholicism  long  gave  a  larger 
and  more  liberal  character  to  Irish  Catliolicism,  and  in 
French  literature  Irish  writers  have  found  the  supreme 
models  of  a  type  of  excellence  which  is  peculiarly 
congruous  to  the  national  mind.  There  have  sometimes 
oecn  political  dangers  arising  from  the  sympathy  be- 
tween the  nations ;  but  on  the  whole  it  has,  I  believe, 
produced  far  more  good  than  evil. 

The  formation  of  the  Wellington  Ministry  seemed 
effectually  to  crush  the  present  hopes  of  the  Catholics, 
for  the  stubborn  resolution  of  its  leader  was  as  well 
known  as  his  Tory  opinions.  Yet  this  Ministry  was 
destined  to  terminate  the  contest  by  establishing 
the  principle  of  religious  equality.      The  first  great 


244  DANIEL   OCONNELL. 

concession  was  won  by  Lord  J.  Russell,  wbo,  by  obtain- 
ing the  repeal  of  the  Corporation  and  Test  Acts,  secured 
the  admission  of  Dissenters  to  the  full  privileges  of 
the  constitution.  The  Tory  theory  that  the  State 
having  an  established  religion,  the  members  of  that  re- 
ligion had  aright  Ko  d  position  of  political  ascendency, 
was  thus  for  the  first  time  rejected,  and  with  it  fell 
the  most  popular  argument  against  Catholic  emanci- 
pation. O'Connell  and  the  Ctholics  warmly  sup- 
ported the  Dissenters  in  their  struggle  for  emanci- 
pation, but  the  'No  Popery'  feeling  among  the  latter 
was  so  strong  that  they  never  reciprocated  the  assist- 
ance. Even  at  a  time  when  they  were  themselves 
suffering  from  disabling  laws,  they  were  in  general 
liostile  to  Catholic  emancipation. 

About  this  time  a  new  project  of  compromise  was 
much  discussed,  both  in  Parliament  and  by  the  public, 
which  shows  clearly  how  greatly  the  prospects  of  the 
cause  had  improved.  This  project  was,  that  the  eman- 
cipation should  be  accompanied  by  the  payment  of  the 
clergy  by  the  State,  and  by  the  disfranchisement  of 
the  405.  freeholders.  It  seems  to  have  been  very 
generally  felt  that  while  emancipation  could  not  be 
long  delayed,  some  measure  should  be  taken  to  prevent 
the  Poman  Catholic  body  from  being  virtually  inde- 
pendent of  the  Crown.  It  was  felt  that  a  body  which 
was  connected  by  interests,  by  sympathies  and  alle- 
giance, with  a  foreign  Court,  might  become  very 
dangerous  in  Parliament.  To  pay  the  Roman  Catholic 
clergy  would  be  to  unite  them  by  a  strong  tie  to 
England,  and  to  place  them  in  a  measure  imder  the 
control  of  the  Government.  It  would  also,  in  all 
probability,  set  at  rest  the  long-vexed  question  of 
the  Established  Church.  Pitt  had  contemplated  the 
measure,  and  it   found   many  very  able   advocates  in 


THE   CLARE    ELECTION.  245 

England.  O'Connell  at  iirst  tbougbt  that  the  clergy 
should  demand  this  arrangement ;  but,  on  their  vehe- 
ment opposition,  ho  renounced  the  idea.  In  1837 
}ie  had  a  warm  controversy  on  the  subject  with  Mr. 
Smith  O'Brien,  who  advocated  pajmient.  Each  was 
probably  right,  according  to  his  own  point  of  view. 
]Mr.  O'Brien  looked  mainly  to  the  interests  of  his 
country — O'Connell  to  the  interests  of  his  Church. 
To  pay  the  priests  would  have  been,  in  a  great  measure, 
to  pacify  Ireland,  but  they  would  have  been  less 
powerful  than  when  resting  exclusively  on  the  people, 
and  they  have  always  cared  much  more  for  power  than 
for  money. 

On  the  accession  of  the  AVellington  Ministry  to 
power  the  Catholic  Association  passed  a  resolution  to 
the  effect  that  they  would  oppose  with  their  whole 
energy  any  Irish  member  who  consented  to  accept 
office  under  it.  When  the  Test  and  Corporation  Acts 
were  repealed,  Lord  John  Russell  advised  the  with- 
drawal of  this  resolution,  and  O'Connell,  who,  at  that 
time,  usually  acted  as  moderator,  was  inclined  to 
comply.  Fortunately,  however,  his  opinion  was  over- 
ruled. An  opportunity  for  carrying  the  resolution 
into  effect  soon  occurred.  Mr.  Fitzgerald,  the  member 
for  Clare,  accepted  the  office  of  President  of  the  Board 
of  Trade,  and  was  consequently  obliged  to  go  to  his 
constituents  for  re-election.  An  attempt  was  made 
to  induce  a  Major  Macnamara  to  oppose  him,  but  it 
failed  at  the  last  moment,  and  then  O'Connell  adopted 
the  bold  resolution  of  standing  himself.  The  excite- 
ment at  this  announcement  rose  at  once  to  fever 
height.  It  extended  over  every  part  of  Ireland,  and 
penetrated  every  class  of  society.  Tlie  whole  mass  of 
the  Roman  Catholics  prepared  to  support  him,  and 
the  vast  system  of  organisation  which  he  had  framed 


246  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

acted  effectually  in  every  direction.  He  went  down 
to  the  field  of  battle,  accompanied  by  Shell,  by  the 
well-kno\\Ti  controversialist  Father  INIaguire,  and  by 
Steele  and  O'Grorman  Mahon,  two  very  ardent  but 
eccentric  Repealers,  who  proposed  and  seconded  him. 
]\Ir.  Steele  began  operations  by  offering  to  fight  a 
duel  with  any  landlord  who  was  aggrieved  at  the 
interference  with  his  tenants — a  characteristic  but 
judicious  proceeding,  which  greatly  simplified  the  con- 
test. O'Connell,  Shell,  and  Father  Maguire  flew  over 
the  country,  haranguing  the  people.  The  priests  ad- 
dressed the  parishioners  with  impassioned  zeal  from 
the  altar  ;  they  called  on  them,  as  they  valued  their 
immortal  souls,  as  they  would  avoid  the  doom  of  the 
apostate  and  the  renegade,  to  stand  firm  to  the  banner 
of  their  faith.  Robed  in  the  sacred  vestments,  and 
bearing  aloft  the  image  of  God,  they  passed  from 
rank  to  rank,  stimulating  the  apathetic,  encouraging 
the  fainthearted,  and  imprecating  curses  on  the  re- 
creant. They  breathed  the  martyr-spirit  into  their 
people,  and  persuaded  them  that  their  cause  was  as 
sacred  as  that  of  the  early  Christians.  They  opposed 
the  spell  of  religion  to  the  spell  of  feudalism — the 
traditions  of  the  chapel  to  the  traditions  of  the 
hall. 

The  landlords,  on  the  other  hand,  were  equally 
resolute.  They  were  indignant  at  a  body  of  men  wlio 
had  no  connection  with  the  county  presuming  to 
dictate  to  their  tenants.  They  protested  vehemently 
against  th&  introduction  of  spiritual  influence  into  a 
political  election,  and  against  the  ingratitude  manl- 
Tested  towards  a  tried  and  upright  member.  Mr.  Fitz- 
gerald had  always  been  a  supporter  of  the  Catholic 
cause.  He  was  an  accomplished  speaker,  a  man  of 
unquestioned  integrity,  and  of  most   fasclnatiug  and 


TEE    CLARE   ELECTION.  247 

polishofi  manners.  His  father  who  was  at  this  time 
lyinr,  on  his  death-bed — had  been  one  of  those  members 
of  the  Irish  Parliament  who  had  resisted  all  the  offers 
and  all  the  persuasions  of  the  IMinistry,  and  had 
recorded  their  votes  against  the  Union.  The  land- 
lords were  to  a  man  in  his  favour.  Sir  Edward 
O'Brien,  the  father  of  Mr.  Smith  O'Brien,  and  the 
leading  landlord,  proposed  ]iim,  and  almost  all  the 
men  of  weight  and  reputation  in  the  county  sur- 
rounded him  on  the  hustings.  Nor  did  he  prove  un- 
worthy of  the  contest.  His  speech  was  a  model  of 
good  taste,  of  popular  reasoning,  and  of  touching 
appeal.  He  recounted  his  services  and  the  services  of 
liis  father ;  and,  as  he  touched  with  delicate  pathos  on 
this  latter  subject,  his  voice  faltered  and  his  coun- 
tenance betrayed  so  genuine  an  emotion  that  a  kindred 
feeling  passed  through  all  his  hearers,  and  he  closed 
his  speech  amidst  almost  unanimous  applause.  The 
effect  was,  however,  soon  counteracted  by  O'Connell, 
wlio  exerted  himself  to  the  utmost  on  the  occasion, 
and  withheld  no  invective  and  no  sarcasm  that  could 
subserve  his  cause.  After  two  or  three  days'  polling 
the  victory  was  decided,  and  Mr.  Fitzgerald  withdrew 
from  the  contest. 

Ireland  was  now  on  the  very  verge  of  revolution. 
The  'fthole  mass  of  the  people  ]iad  been  organised  like 
a  regular  army,  and  taught  to  act  with  the  most 
perfect  unanimity.  Adopting  a  suggestion  of  Shell, 
they  were  accustomed  to  assenible  in  every  part  of 
the  country  on  the  same  day,  and  scarcely  an  adult 
Catholic  abstained  from  the  movement.  In  1828  it 
was  computed  that  in  a  single  day  two  thousand  meet- 
ings were  held.  In  the  same  year  Lord  Anglesey  had 
written  to  Sir  Eobert  Peel,  stating  that  the  priests 
were  working  most  effectually  on  the  Catholics  of  the 


H8  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

army,  that  it  was  reported  that  many  of  these  were 
ill-disposed,  and  that  it  was  important  to  remove  the 
depots  of  recruits,  and  supj^Iy  their  place  by  Euglisi' 
or  Scotch  men.  Tlie  contagion  of  the  movement  liad 
thoroughly  infected  the  wliole  population.  If  conces- 
sion had  not  been  made,  almost  e^'e^y  Catholic  county 
would  have  followed  the  example  of  Clare ;  and  the 
Ministers,  feeling  further  resistance  to  be  hopeless, 
brought  in  the  Emancipation  Bill,  confessedly  because 
to  withhold  it  would  be  to  kindle  a  rebellion  that 
would  extend  over  the  length  and  breadth  of  the 
land. 

It  was  thus  that  this  great  \ictory  was  won  by  the 
genius  of  a  single  man,  who  had  entered  on  the  con- 
test without  any  advantage  of  rank,  or  Avealth,  or 
influence,  who  had  maintained  it  from  no  prouder 
eminence  than  the  platform  of  the  demagogue,  and 
who  terminated  it  without  the  effusion  of  a  single 
drop  of  blood.  All  the  eloquence  of  Grattan  and  of 
Plunket,  all  the  influence  of  Pitt  and  of  Canning,  had 
proved  ineffectual.  Toryism  had  evoked  the  spirit  of 
relicfious  intolerance.  The  pulpits  of  England  resounded 
witli  denunciations ;  the  Evangelical  movement  had 
roused  the  fierce  passions  of  Puritanism;  yet  every 
obstacle  succumbed  before  the  energy  of  this  untitled 
lawyer.  The  most  eminent  advocates  of  emancipation 
had  almost  all  fallen  away  from  and  disavowed  him. 
He  had  devised  the  organisation  that  gave  such  weight 
to  public  opinion  ;  he  had  created  the  enthusiasm  that 
inspired  it ;  he  had  applied  to  political  affairs  the 
priestly  influence  that  consecrated  it.  With  the  ex- 
ception of  Sheil,  no  man  of  commanding  talent  shared 
his  labours,  and  Sheil  was  conspicuous  only  as  a  rhe- 
torician. He  gained  this  victory  not  by  stimulating 
the  courage  or  increasing  the  number  of  the  advocates 


THE    IRISH    LANDLORDS.  249 

of  the  measure  in  Parliament,  but  by  creating  another 
system  of  government  in  Ireland,  wliich  overawed  all 
his  opponents.  He  gained  it  at  a  time  when  his 
bitterest  enemies  held  the  reins  of  power,  and  when 
they  were  guided  by  tlie  most  successful  statesman  of 
his  generation,  and  by  one  of  the  most  stubborn  wills 
that  ever  directed  the  atfairs  of  tho  nation.  If  he 
had  never  arisen,  emancipation  would  doubtless,  have 
been  at  length  conceded,  but  it  would  have  been  con- 
ceded as  a  boon  granted  by  a  superior  to  an  inferior 
class,  and  it  would  have  been  accompanied  and  quali- 
fied ])y  the  veto.  It  was  the  glory  of  O'Connell  that 
his  Church  entered  into  the  constitution  triumphant 
and  unshackled — an  object  of  fear  and  not  of  contempt 
— a  power  that  could  visibly  affect  the  policy  of  the 
empire. 

The  Relief  Bill  of  1829  marks  a  great  social  revolu- 
tion in  Ireland — the  substitution  of  the  priests  for  the 
landlords  as  tlic  leaders  of  the  people.  For  a  long 
time  a  kind  of  feudal  system  liad  existed,  under  which 
the  people  were  drawn  in  the  closest  manner  to  the 
landlords.  In  estimating  the  character  of  this  latter 
class  we  must,  I  think,  make  very  large  allowance  for 
the  singularly  unfavourable  circumstances  under  which 
they  had  long  been  placed.  The  Irish  Parliament  was 
goveraed  chiefly  by  corruption,  and  as  the  landlords 
controlled  most  of  the  votes,  and  as  the  county  dignities 
to  which  they  aspired  were  all  in  the  gift  of  the 
Government,  they  were,  beyond  all  other  classes,  ex- 
posed to  temptation.  They  were  also  subject  to  much 
"ihe  same  kind  of  demoralising  process  as  that  which 
in  slave  countries  invariably  degrades  the  slave-owner. 
Tlie  estate  of  tho  Protestant  landowner  had  in  very 
many  cases  been  torn  by  violence  from  its  former 
possessors.     He  held  it  by  tlu;  tenure  and  in  tlie  spirit 


250  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

of  a  conqueror.  His  tenants  were  of  a  conquered  race, 
of  a  despised  religion,  speaking  another  language,  de- 
nuded of  all  political  rights,  sunk  in  abject  ignorance 
and  poverty,  and  with  no  leader  under  whom  they 
could  rally.  Surrounded  with  helots  depending  abso- 
lutely on  his  will,  it  was  not  surprising  that  he  con- 
tracted the  vices  of  a  despot.  Arthur  Young  concludes 
a  viv\d  description  of  the  relation  between  the  classes 
by  the  assertion  that  '  a  landlord  in  Ireland  can  scarcely 
invent  an  order  which  a  servant,  or  labourer,  or  cot- 
tier dares  to  refuse  to  execute  ; '  and  the  total  absence  of 
independence  on  the  part  of  the  lower  orders,  and  the 
general  tolerance  of  brutal  violence  on  the  part  of  the 
higher  orders,  struck  most  Englishmen  in  Ireland. 
Besides  this,  the  penal  laws  which  gave  the  Avhole 
estate  of  the  Catholic  to  any  son  who  w^ould  consent  to 
abjure  his  religion,  seemed  ingeniously  contrived  to 
secure  a  perpetual  influx  of  unprincipled  men  into  the 
landlord  class ;  while  the  vast  smuggling  trade  which 
necessarily  followed  the  arbitrary  and  ruinous  pro- 
hibition of  the  export  of  wool,  conspired  wuth  other 
causes  to  make  the  landlords,  like  all  other  Irishmen, 
hostile  to  the  law.  The  glimpses  wliich  are  given 
incidentally  of  their  mode  of  life  by  Swift,  Berkeley, 
Chesterfield,  and  Dobbs,  and  at  a  later  period  by  Arthur 
Young,  are  in  many  respects  exceedingly  unfavourable. 
The  point  of  honour  in  Ireland  has  always  been  rather 
in  favour  of  improvidence  than  of  economy.  In  dress 
and  living  a  scale  of  reckless  expenditiue  w^as  common, 
which  impelled  the  landlords  to  rackrents  and  invasions 
of  the  common  land,  and  these  in  their  turn  produced 
the  agrarian  troubles  of  the  '  ^^'hiteboys '  and  '  Hearts 
of  Steel.'  Hard  drinking  was  carried  to  a  much  greater 
extent  than  in  England,  and  both  Berkeley  and  Chester- 
field have  noticed  the  extraordinary  consumption  of 


TITB   imSlI   LANDLORDS.  251 

French  wines,  even  in  families  of  very  moderate  means. 
The  character  of  the  whole  hmded  interest  is  always 
profoundly  influenced  by  that  of   its  natural  leaders, 
the  aristocracy  and  the  magistracy;   but   in  Ireland 
peerages  were  systematically  conferred  as  a  means  of 
corruption,  and  the  appointments  to  the  magistracy 
were  so  essentially  political  that  even  in  the  present 
century  landlords  have  been  refused  the  dignity  because 
they  were  favourable  to  Catholic    emancipation.'     A 
spirit  of  reckless  place-hunting  and  jobbing  was  very 
prevalent,  and  combined  curiously  with  that  extreme 
lawlessness  which  wvas  the  characteristic  of  every  section 
of  Irish  society.     Duelling  was  almost  universal,  and 
it  was  carried  largely  into  politics,  and  even  into  the 
administration  of  justice;  for  a  magistrate  who  gave  a 
decision  in  favour  of  a  tenant  against  his  landlord  was 
liable  to  be  called  out,  and  by  the  same  process  land- 
lords are    said   to   have    defended   their   own  tenants 
against   prosecution.      No    Irish  jury,  Arthur  Young 
assures    us,  would   in   duelling   cases   find   a   verdict 
against  the  homicide.     It  was  a  common  boast  that 
there  were  whole  districts  in  which  the  King's  writ 
wiis  inoperative.     In  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth 
century  'hell-fire    clubs,'  which  were  scenes  of  gross 
vice,  existed  in  Dublin,  and  the  crime  of  forcible  ab- 
duction was,  through  nearly  the  whole  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  probably  more   common  in  Ireland  than  in 
any  other  European  country,  and  it  prevailed   both 
among   the   gentry   and   among   the   peasants.  ^  It  is 
worthy  of  notice  that  Aiihur  Young  observed  in  the 

'  Tlie  reader  may  find  some  rcry  curious  facts  about  the  appointments 
of  Irish  magistrates  in  the  early  part  of  this  century  in  O'Flanagan's 
'  Lives  of  the  Irish  Chancellors  '  (Life  of  Lord  Manners) ;  Lord  Clon- 
curry's  '  Personal  Recollections ; '  and  Bulwcr's  '  Life  of  Lord  Palmcr- 
Bton,'  vol.  i.  p.  337. 


252  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

former,  as  much  as  in  the  latter,  a  strong  disposition 
to  screen  criminals  from  justice. 

These  are  the  shades  of  the  picture,  and  they  are 
sufficiently  dark.  On  the  other  hand,  as  the  eighteenth 
century  advanced,  the  character  of  the  higher  classes 
imj^roved.  Drinking  and  duelling,  though  still  very 
general,  had  appreciably  diminished.  The  demoralising 
influence  of  the  penal  laws  was  mitigated.  The  gentry 
were  gradually  rooted  to  the  soil,  and  a  strong  national 
feeling  having  arisen,  they  ceased  to  look  upon  them- 
selves as  aliens  or  conquerors.  The  Irish  character  i;^ 
naturally  intensely  aristocratic ;  and  when  gross  oppres- 
sion was  not  perpetrated,  the  Irish  landlords  were,  1 
imagine,  on  the  whole  very  popular,  and  the  rude, 
good-humoured  despotism  which  they  wielded  wai- 
cordially  accepted.  Their  extravagance,  their  lavisb 
hospitality,  their  reckless  courage,  their  keen  sportinc^ 
tastes,  won  the  hearts  of  their  people,  and  tlie  feudal 
sentiment  that  the  landlord  should  command  the  votes 
of  his  tenants  was  universal  and  unquestioned.  Tlic 
measure  of  1793,  conferring  votes  on  the  Catholics, 
though  it  is  said  to  liave  weakened  the  zeal  of  some  oi 
the  advocates  of  Parliament ar}^  reform,  left  this  feeling- 
unchanged.  Xor  were  the  Irish  gentry  without  quali- 
ties of  a  high  order.  The  love  of  witty  society ;  the  pas- 
sion for  the  drama  and  especially  for  private  thea- 
tricals, which  was  very  general  in  Ireland  through  the 
eighteenth  century ;  and,  above  all,  the  great  school 
of  Parliamentary  eloquence  in  Dublin,  indicated  and 
fostered  tastes  very  different  from  those  of  mere 
illiterate  country  squires.  The  noble  efflorescence  of 
political  and  oratorical  genius  among  Irishmen  in  the 
last  quarter  of  the  century,  the  perfect  calm  with 
which  great  measures  for  the  relief  of  the  Catholics 
which   would  have  been  impossible  in   En;^land  were 


THE   IRISH   LANDLORDS.  253 

received  in  Ireland  ;  above  all,  the  manner  in  -which 
the  Volunteer  movement  was  organised,  directed,  and 
controlled,  are  decisive  proofs  that  the  upper  classes 
possessed  many  high  and  commanding  (pialities,  and 
enjoyed  in  a  very  large  measure  the  confidence  of  their 
inferiors.  They  were  probably  less  uncultivated,  and 
they  were  certainly  much  less  bigoted,  than  the  corre- 
sponding class  in  England,  and  as  long  as  they  consented 
to  be  frankly  Irish,  their  people  readily  followed  them. 
Occasional  instances  of  deliberate  tyranny  and  much 
sudden  violence  undoubtedly  took  place  ;  but  it  should 
be  remembered  that  during  the  whole  of  the  eighteenth 
century  the  greater  part  of  Ireland  was  let  at  very  long 
leases,  and  that  the  margin  between  the  profits  of  tlie 
tenant  and  the  rent  of  the  landlord  was  so  great  that 
the  former  almost  invariably  sublet  his  tenancy  at  an 
increased  rent.  The  distress  of  the  people  was  mucli 
more  due  to  this  system  of  middlemen,  and  to  their  own 
ignorance  and  improvidence,  than  to  landlord  tyranny; 
and  the  faults  of  the  upper  classes,  in  dealing  with 
their  tenants,  were  rather  those  of  laxity  and  im- 
prudence than  of  harshness.  The  absence  of  any  legal 
provision  for  the  poor  produced  great  misery,  and  had 
a  bad  economical  effect  in  removing  one  of  the  great 
inducements  to  the  gentry  to  check  pauperism ;  but, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  fostered  a  very  unusual  spirit 
of  private  charity  through  the  country.  Absenteeism 
■vvas  much  complained  of;  but  this  probably  sprang 
more  from  the  great  tracts  of  confiscated  land  which 
had  been  given  to  great  English  proprietors,  than  from 
the  systematic  absence  of  the  natives.  The  presiince 
of  a  Parliament  secured  a  brilliant  society  in  Dublin; 
;ind  in  the  country  travellers  represent  the  roads  as 
rather  better  than  in  England,  and  tlie  country  seats 
as    numerous  and    imposing.       Tlic    absence    of  rival 


254  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

authority  and  of  religious  intolerance,  and  the  character 
of  the  people,  made  the  social  system  work  better  than 
might  have  been  expected.  Good-nature  is,  perhaps, 
the  most  characteristic  Irish  virtue ;  and  if  it  is  not 
one  of  the  highest,  it  is  at  least  one  of  the  most  useful 
qualities  that  a  nation  can  possess.  It  will  soften  the 
burden  of  the  most  oppressive  laws  and  of  the  most 
a))ject  poverty,  and  the  only  evil  before  which  it  is 
powerless  is  sectarian  zeal.  O'Connell  evoked  that 
zeal,  and  the  bond  between  landlord  and  tenant  was 
broken.  'I  have  polled  all  the  gentry,  and  all  the 
501.  freeholders,'  wrote  Mr.  Fitzgerald  to  Sir  P.  Peel, 
when  giving  an  account  of  his  defeat — '  the  gentry  to  a 
man.'  The  attitude  which  the  landlord  class  after- 
wards assumed  during  the  agitation  for  Kepeal  com- 
pleted the  change,  and  they  have  never  regained 
their  old  position. 

It  must  be  added  that  another  important  train  of 
causes  was  operating  in  the  same  direction.  The  eco- 
n.imical  condition  of  Ireland  had  long  been  j^rofoundly 
diseased.  The  effect  of  the  confiscations,  and  of  the 
penal  laws,  had  been  that  almost  all  the  land  belonged 
t)  Protestants,  while  the  tenants  were  chiefly  Catholics. 
Tiie  effect  of  the  restrictions  on  trade  had  been  that 
manufacturing  industry  was  almost  unknown,  and  tlic 
whole  impoverished  population  was  thrown  for  subsist- 
ence upon  the  soil.  At  the  same  time  the  English 
hmd  laws,  which  are  chiefly  intended  to  impede  the 
free  circulation  and  the  division  of  land,  were  in  force 
in  the  country  in  which,  beyond  all  others,  such  circu- 
lation is  desirable.  One  of  the  most  important  objects 
of  a  wise  legislation  is  to  soften  the  antagonism  between 
hmdlord  and  tenant  by  interweaving  their  interests,  by 
facilitating  the  creation  of  a  small  yeoman  class  who 
break  the  social  disparity,  and  by  providing  outlets  for 


ECONOMICAL   CONDITION    OF   IRELAND.  255 

the  surplus  agricultural  population.  In  Ireland  none 
of  these  mitigations  existed ;  and  the  difference  of  reli- 
gion, and  the  memory  of  ancient  violence,  aggravated 
to  the  utmost  the  hostility.  The  tithes,  levied  for  the 
most  part  on  the  poor  Catholics  for  the  support  of  the 
Church  of  the  landlords,  were  another  element  of  dissen- 
sion. All  the  materials  of  the  most  dangerous  social 
war  thus  existed,  though  the  personal  popularity  of  the 
landlords,  and  the  prostrate  condition  of  the  Catholics, 
for  a  time  postponed  the  evil.  The  habits  of  disorder, 
and  the  secret  organisations  which  had  aMsen  in  the 
middle  of  the  eighteenth  century,  continued  to  smoulder 
among  the  people,  and  in  the  great  distress  that  fol- 
lowed the  sudden  fall  of  prices  which  accompanied  the 
peace,  they  broke  out  afresh.  The  land,  as  I  have 
said,  in  the  closing  years  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
was  chiefly  let  at  moderate  rents  on  long  leases.  The 
tenant  usually  sublet  his  tenancy,  and  on  the  great  rise 
of  prices  resulting  from  the  war,  the  sub-tenant  usually 
took  a  similar  course,  and  the  same  process  continued 
till  there  were  often  four  or  five  persons  between  the 
landlord  and  the  cultivator  of  the  soil.  The  peasants, 
accustomed  to  the  lowest  standard  of  comfort,  and 
e  couraged  by  their  priests  to  many  early,  multiplied 
recklessly.  The  land  was  divided  into  infinitesimal 
farms,  and  all  classes  seemed  to  assume  that  war  prices 
would  be  perpetual.  Many  landlords,  bound  by  their 
leases,  were  unable  to  interfere  with  the  process  of 
division,  while  others  acquiesced  in  it  through  laxity 
of  temper  or  dread  of  unpopidarity ;  and  others  encou- 
raged it,  as  tlie  multiplication  of  40s.  freeholders  in- 
creased the  number  of  voters  wliom  they  could  control. 
In  such  a  condition  of  affairs,  the  fall  in  the  value  of 
agricultural  produce  after  the  peace  proved  a  crushing 
calamity.  Large  sections  of  the  people  were  on  tlie  verge 


2o()  DANIEL   O  CORNELL. 

of  starvation,  and  among  all  agricultural  labourers 
there  was  a  distress  and  a  feeling  of  oppression  wbicli 
alienated  tbem  from  their  landlords,  and  predisposed 
them  to  follow  new  leaders. 

When  introducing  the  Eoman  Catholics  to  Parlia- 
ment, the  Ministers  brought  forward  two  or  three  mea- 
sures with  the  object  of  diminishing  their  power,  the 
only  one  of  any  real  value  being  the  disfranchisement 
of  the  405.  freeholders.  This  measure  greatly  lessened 
the  proportion  of  the  Roman  Catholic  electors.  It 
struck  off  a  number  of  voters  who  were  far  too  ignorant 
to  form  independent  opinions,  and  it  in  some  degree 
checked  the  fatal  tendency  to  subdivision  of  lands.  It 
would  have  been  well  if  the  Ministers  had  stopped 
here ;  but,  with  an  infatuation  that  seems  scarcely  cre- 
dible, they  proceeded  in  this  most  critical  moment  to 
adopt  a  policy  which  had  the  effect  of  irritating  the 
Koman  Catholics  to  the  utmost,  without  in  any  degree 
diminishing  their  power,  and  of  completely  preventing 
the  pacific  effects  that  concession  might  naturally  have 
had.  Their  first  act  was  to  refuse  to  admit  O'Connell 
into  Parliament  without  re-election,  on  the  ground 
that  the  Emancipation  Act  had  passed  since  his  elec- 
tion. It  was  felt  that  this  refusal  was  purely  political, 
and  designed  to  mark  their  reprobation  of  liis  career. 
It  was,  of  course,  utterly  impotent,  for  O'Connell  was 
at  once  re-elected  ;  but  it  was  accepted  by  the  whole 
people  as  an  insult  and  a  defiance.  O'Connell  himself 
was  extremely  irritated,  aiid  to  the  end  of  his  life  his 
antipathy  to  Sir  Robert  Peel  was  of  the  bitterest  and 
most  personal  character.  He  said  of  him  that  '  liis 
smile  was  like  the  silver  plate  on  a  coffin.'  There  was, 
perhaps,  no  single  measure  that  did  so  mucli  to  foster 
the  feeling  of  discontent  in  Ireland  as  this  paltry  and 
irrational  proceeding. 


CATEOLIC   EMANCIPATION.  257 

It  was  succeeded  by  another  indication  of  the  same 
spirit.     By  the  Emancipation  Act  the  higher  positions 
in  the  Bar  were  thrown  open,  as  well  as  the  Parlia- 
ment.   A  distribution  of  silk  gowns  naturally  followed  ; 
and,  while  several  lloman  Catholic  barristers  obtained 
this  distinction,  O'Connell,  who  occupied  the  very  fore- 
most  position,  was  passed  over.     Among   those  who 
were  promoted  was  Shell,  who  had  co-operated  with 
him  through  the  whole  struggle.     It  now,  too,  became 
manifest  that  the  Tories  were  determined  to  render  the 
Emancipation  Act  as  nugatory  as  was  possible,  by  never 
promoting  a  Roman  Catholic  to  the  bench.     For  some 
time  imder  their  rule  the  exclusion  was  absolute.    The 
Eelief  Bill  was  also  accompanied  by  a  temporary  Act 
suppressing  the  Catholic  Association,  and  enabling  the 
Lord-Lieutenant,  during  the  space  of  ratJier  more  than 
a  year,  to   suppress  arbitrarily,  by  proclamation,  any 
association    or  assembly   he    miglit    deem  dangerous. 
A  measure   of  this  kind  suspended  every  vestige   of 
political  liberty,  and  left  the  people  as  discontented 
as   ever.     O'Connell  declared  that  justice   to   Ireland 
was  not  to  be  obtained  from  an  English  Parliament, 
and  the  tide  of  popular  feeling  set  in  with  irresisti- 
ble force  towards  Repeal.     Of  all  possible  measures, 
Catholic    emancipation  might,  if  judiciously  carried, 
luive  been  most  efficacious  in  allaying  agitation,  and 
making   Ireland   permanently   loyal.      Had    it    been 
carried  in  1795 — as  it  undoubtedly  would  have  been  if 
Pitt  had  not  recalled  Lord  Fitzwilliam — the  country 
would  have  been  spared  the  Rebellion  of  1798,  and  all 
classes   might  have  rallied   cordially  round  the  Irish 
Parliament.     Had  it  been  carried  at,  or  immediately 
after,  the  Union — as  it  would  have  been  if  Pitt  had 
not  again  betrayed  the  cause — it  might  have  assuaged 
the  bitterness  which  that  measure  caused,  and  produced 


258  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

a  cordial  amalgamation  of  the  two  nations.  It  was 
delayed  until  sectarian  feeling  on  both  sides,  and  in 
both  countries,  had  acquired  an  enduring  intensity, 
and  it  was  at  last  conceded  in  a  manner  that  produced 
no  gratitude,  and  was  the  strongest  incentive  to  further 
agitation.  In  estimating  the  political  character  of 
Sir  R.  Peel,  it  must  never  be  forgotten  that  on  the 
most  momentous  question  of  his  time  he  was  for  many 
years  the  obstinate  opponent  of  a  measure  which  is 
now  almost  universally  admitted  to  liave  been  not  only 
just,  but  inevitable  ;  that  his  policy  having  driven  Ire- 
land to  the  verge  of  civil  war,  he  yielded  the  boon  he 
had  refused  simply  to  a  menace  of  force  ;  and  that  he 
accompanied  the  concession  by  a  display  of  petty  and 
impotent  spite  which  deprived  it  of  half  its  utility  and 
of  all  its  grace. 

The  exasperation  of  O'Connell  at  these  measures  was 
extreme.  He  denounced  the  Ministry  of  Wellington 
and  Peel  with  reckless  violence,  endeavoured  in  1830 
to  embarrass  it  by  a  mischievous  letter  recommending 
a  run  upon  gold,  revived  the  Catholic  Association 
under  new  names  and  forms,  and  energetically  agitated 
for  the  repeal  of  the  Union.  The  proclamations  of  the 
Lord-Lieutenant,  however,  suppressed  these  associa- 
tions, and  when  he  attempted  to  hold  public  meetings 
he  was  compelled  to  yield  to  a  prosecution  ;  the  upper 
classes  strongly  discouraged  the  new  agitation,  and  the 
Ministry  of  Wellington  soon  tottered  to  its  fall.  In 
the  beginning  of  1831  he  accordingly  desisted  from  agi- 
tation, ostensibly  in  order  to  test  the  effect  of  emanci- 
pation upon  the  policy  of  the  Imperial  Parliament.  The 
Reform  question  was  at  this  time  rising  to  its  height. 
O'Connell  advocated  the  most  extreme  Radical  views, 
and,  in  1830,  brought  in  a  Bill  for  universal  suffrage, 
triennin^  Parliaments,   and    the    ballot.     He   wrote  a 


miSII   DISTURBANCES. 


259 


series  of  letters  on  the  question.  He  brought  the  whole 
force  of  his  influence  to  act  upon  it,  and  his  followers 
contributed  largely  to  the  triumph  of  the  measure  of 
1832— a  fact  which  was  remembered  with  great  bitter- 
ness when  the  Reformed  Parliament  began  its  career 
by  an  extremely  stringent  Coercion  Bill  for  Ireland. 

The  social  condition  of  Ireland  was,  indeed,  at  tliis 
time  most  deplorable.  Agrarian  murders  and  tithe 
riots,  the  burning  of  houses  and  the  mutilation  of 
cattle,  were  of  almost  daily  occurrence.  Secret  socie- 
ties ramified  over  the  country,  and  in  a  considerable 
part  of  Leinster  absolute  anarchy  was  reigning.  The 
bonds  that  united  society  were  broken,  law  was  utterly 
discredited,  and  class  warfare  and  religious  animosity 
were  supreme. 

To  a  certain  extent  O'Connell  was  undoubtedly  re- 
sponsible for  these  crimes.     He  had  first  awakened  the 
Catholics  out  of  their  torpor,  made  them  sensible  of 
their  wrongs,  and  taught  them  to  look  to  themselves 
for   the   remedy.      He   liad  begun   a   fierce  political 
agitation   whicli   propagated   itself   in   various   forms 
through  all  classes  of  the  community.     He  had  broken 
down'^the  reverence  for  rank,  set  class  against  class, 
lashed  an  excitable  people  to  frenzy  by  the  most  in- 
flammatory language,  distinctly  encouraged  them  to 
refuse  the  payment  of  tithes,  and  palliated,  or  more 
tlian  palliated,  all  the  violence  to  which  that  refusal 
led.      On   the   other  hand,  he   \miformly   denounced 
secret  societies  with   unqualified  severity,  and  repre- 
sented them  as  the  most  fatal  obstacles  to  his  policy. 
'  He  who  commits  a  crime  adds  strength  to  the  enemy,' 
was    one   of  liis    favourite    mottos,    and  he   had  few 
greater  difficulties  to  encounter  than  the  Coercion  Bills 
which  these  lawless  outbursts  provoked.    It  should  also 
not  be  forgotten,  in  considering  the  connection  between 


260  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

political  agitation  and  crimes  of  violence,  tliafc  the 
latter  almost  disappeared  in  Ireland  during  the  Eepeal 
movement,  when  the  former  was  at  its  height. 

Whatever  opinion,  however,  may  be  formed  about  the 
manner  in  whicli  the  blame  of  these  outrages  should 
be  distributed,  they  are  in  themselves  at  least  suffi- 
ciently explicable.  A  people,  poor,  ignorant,  and 
extremely  excitable,  had  been  urged  into  a  furious  and 
most  successful  agitation.  A  fierce  w^ar  of  classes  and 
a  fierce  religious  animosity  were  raging,  and  at  the 
same  time  the  w^hole  administration  of  justice  and  tlie 
whole  local  government  were  in  tlie  hands  of  men  in 
whom  the  great  majority  of  the  population  could  have 
no  confidence.  In  1833 — four  years  after  Catholic 
emancipation — there  was  not  in  Ireland  a  single  Catholic 
judge  or  stipendiary  magistrate.  All  the  liigh  sheriffs 
with  one  exception,  the  ovenvhelming  majority  of  tlio 
unpaid  magistrates  and  of  the  grand  jurors,  the  five 
inspectors-general,  and  the  thirty-two  sub-inspectors  of 
police,  were  Protestant.  The  chief  towns  were  in  the 
hands  of  narrow,  corrupt,  and,  for  the  most  part, 
intensely  bigoted  corporations.  Even  in  a  Whig 
Grovernment,  not  a  single  Irisliman  liad  a  scat  in 
the  Cabinet,  and  the  Irish  Secretary  was  ]\Ir.  Stan- 
ley, wliose  imperious  manners  and  imbridled  temper 
had  made  him  intensely  hated.  For  many  years 
promotion  had  been  steadily  withheld  from  those  who 
advocated  Catholic  emancipation,  and  the  majority  of 
the  people  thus  found  their  bitterest  enemies  in  the 
foremost  places.  Their  minds  were  now  turned  eagerly 
towards  I^epeal,  and  they  were  told  by  the  English 
Minister  that  the  constitutional  expression  of  their 
desire  would  be  perfectly  useless,  and  that  '  the  people 
of  England  would  resist  it  to  tlie  death.'  At  the  same 
time,  it  is  scarcely  an   exaggeration  to  say  that  the 


TITHES.  261 

British  constitution  had  no  existence  in  Ireland.  Sir 
R.  Peel,  in  one  of  his  speeches  in  1829,  made  an  ad- 
mission which  is  an  instructive  comment  on  the 
common  eulogies  of  the  pacifying  "wisdom  of  the  Irish 
policy  of  Pitt.  He  stated  that  in  scarcely  one  year 
since  the  Union  was  Ireland  governed  by  ordinary  law.* 
The  Habeas  Corpus  Act,  which  is  perhaps  the  most 
important  part  of  the  British  constitution,  was  sus- 
pended in  Ireland  in  1800,  from  1802  till  1805,  from 
1807  till  1810,  in  1814,  from  1822  till  1824.2  There 
was  no  public  provision  for  the  poor.  There  was  no 
system  of  national  education  except  the  Sectarian 
Kildare  Street  Society.  Above  all,  while  the  Catholic 
priests  received  no  payment  from  Government,  the 
poorest  Catholic  cottager  was  compelled  to  pay  some- 
thing to  support  the  hostile  and  aggressive  Church  of 
the  rich  minority.  There  are  few  methods  of  le\'ying 
money  which  have  been  in  general  more  unpopular 
tlian  tithes,  this  impost  being,  as  Paley  observed,  'not 
only  a  tax  on  industiy,  but  the  industry  that  feeds 
mankind,'  and  of  course  the  natural  objections  to  it 
were  immeasurably  intensified  when  it  was  levied  from 
a  half-starving  peasantry,  who  derived  no  religious 
benefit  from  the  ministrations  of  those  they  were  com- 
pelled to  pay.  A  second  rent,  raised  from  the  most 
impoverished  classes  of  the  community  in  favour  of 
men  who  contributed  nothing  to  production,  and  in 
order  that  they  might  oppose  the  religious  convictions 
of  those  who  paid  them,  was  a  grievance  so  monstrous, 
so  palpable,  and  so  imiversally  felt,  that  it  could  not  fail, 
when  the  Catholics  acquired  some  measure  of  self- 
confidence,  to  produce  a  general  conflagration.     In  the 

'  See  Doiibleday  s  '  Life  of  Sir  R.  Peel,'  vol.  i.  pp.  482,  -183. 
«  Sir  E.  May's  '  Constitutional  History,'  vol.  ii.  p.  270. 


262  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

eighteenth  century  the  Whiteboys  had  been  chiefly 
organised  in  opposition  to  the  tithes,  and  the  landlords 
were  said  sometimes  to  have  instigated  them.  A 
resolution  of  the  House  of  Commons  in  1735,  which 
was  converted  into  a  regular  law  just  before  the  Union, 
relieved  pasture  in  a  great  measure  of  tithes,  thus 
throwing  the  burden  chiefly  on  the  cottier  class ;  and 
there  were  some  curious  inequalities  which  Grrattan 
exposed  and  denounced  in  the  burdens  imposed  on  the 
different  counties.  The  clergy,  by  their  profession  and 
habits,  were  of  course  very  unfitted  to  collect  the  tithes, 
and  the  extreme  minuteness  of  Irish  tenancies  added 
greatly  to  the  difficulty.  Shortly  before  the  tithes  in 
Ireland  were  commuted  it  was  stated  officially  that  in 
a  single  parish  in  Carlow  the  sum  owed  by  222  de- 
faulters was  one  farthing  each,  and  that  a  very  large 
proportion  of  the  defaulters  throughout  the  country 
were  for  sums  not  exceeding  one  shilling.  Under 
these  circumstances,  tlic  clergy  very  naturally  farmed 
out  their  interest  to  tithe -proctors,  who  often  exercised 
their  rights  with  extreme  harshness,  and  became  more 
hated  than  any  other  class  in  the  country.  Grattan 
had  vainly  laboured  to  liave  tithes  commuted,  and 
much  ecclesiastical  superstition  was  sho^^^l  in  defend- 
ing a  system  which,  on  gTOunds  of  expediency  and 
grounds  of  equity,  was  utterly  untenable.  At  last  a 
general  conspiracy  to  refuse  payment  spread  over 
Ireland,  and  every  kind  of  outrage  was  directed  both 
against  those  who  collected  and  those  who  paid  them. 
The  law  was  utterly  paralysed.  The  clergy,  deprived 
of  their  lawful  income,  were  thrown  into  the  deepest 
distress.  Government  came  to  their  assistance  by 
advancing  G0,000^.  in  1832  for  the  clergy  who  had 
been  luiable  to  collect  their  tithes  in  the  preceding 
year,  and  it  imdertook  to  collect  the  unpaid  tithes  of 


COERCION    BILL.  263 

1831.  The  attempt  was  a  signal  failure.  The  arrears 
for  that  year  were  104,000L,  and  of  that  sum,  after 
fierce  conflicts  and  much  bloodshed,  the  Government 
recovered  12,000^.  at  a  cost  of  15,000L  Scarcely  any- 
one ventured  to  defy  the  popular  will  by  paying  the 
tithes.  It  was  with  difficulty  that  the  ordinary  legal 
process  of  distraint  was  executed;  and  when  in  obe- 
dience to  the  law  the  cattle  or  crops  of  the  defaulter 
were  put  up  to  auction  no  one  dared  to  buy  them. 
A  lawless  combination,  sustained  by  the  consciousness 
of  a  real  grievance,  completely  triumphed,  and  the 
presence  of  a  Protestant  clergyman  was  often  sufficient 
to  demoralise  an  entire  district. 

As  I  am  not  writing  a  history  of  Ireland,  I  shall  only 
advert  very  briefly  to  the  important  measures  by  which 
the  reformed  Parliament  endeavoured  to  check  these 
evils.    The  first  measure,  as  I  have  said,  was  a  coercive 
Bill  surpassing  in  stringency  any  to  which  Ireland  had 
yet  been  made  subject,  and  directed  not  only  against 
crime,  but  also   against   political   agitation.     Among 
other  provisions,  it  replaced  the  ordinary  tribunals  in 
the  proclaimed  districts  by  martial  law  ;  and  it  took 
away  over  the  whole  of  Ireland  all  liberty  of  political 
meeting  and  discussion.     That  some  measure  of  severe 
coercion  was  necessary  is  incontestable  ;  for  it  was  com- 
puted that  in  1832  there  were  more  than  9,000  crimes 
perpetrated  in  Ireland  connected  witli  the  disturbed 
state  of  the  country,  and  among  them  nearly  200  cases 
of  homicide.    At  the  same  time  martial  law,  which  was 
equivalent  to  a  total  suspension  of  the  constitution,  was 
a  measure  of  extraordinary  though  perhaps  not  exces- 
sive severity,  and  appeared   especially  so  in  Ireland, 
where  the  atrocities  perpetrated  under  that  law  in  1798 
were  still  remembered.  Tlie  part,  however,  of  the  Coer- 
cion  Bill  which   excited    the  most   intense  and  most 


264 

natural  animosity  was  that  which  was  directed  against 
political  action.  The  repeal  of  the  Union,  whether  it 
was  wise  or  the  reverse,  was  an  object  at  which  it  was 
perfectly  constitutional  to  aim.  Parliament  had  an  un- 
doubted right  to  effect  it,  and  therefore  the  people  had 
an  equally  undoubted  right  to  petition  for  it.  If  it  had 
been  constitutional  before  1800  to  advocate  a  union, 
it  was  equally  constitutional  after  1800  to  advocate  its 
repeal.  Agrarian  and  tithe  outrages  were  chiefly  reign- 
ing in  one  of  the  four  provinces  ;  but  by  the  Coercion 
Bill  of  Mr.  Stanley  no  political  meeting  could  be  held 
in  any  part  of  Ireland  without  tlie  express  permission 
of  the  Lord-Lieutenant;  Tlie  King's  speech,  which  fore- 
shadowed the  measure^  like  two  preceding  ones,  con- 
tained a  paragraph  directed  against  O'Connell  and  his 
agitation,  and  the  Coercion  Bill  appeared  especially  ob- 
noxious, as  coming  from  a  Whig  Ministry  in  a  reformed 
Parliament,  immediately  after  the  Eeform  Bill  wliich 
O'Connell  had  contributed  not  a  little  to  carry. 

It  is  scarcely  possible,  without  possessing  the  de- 
tailed evidence  wliich  is  at  the  disposal  of  a  govern- 
ment, to  pronounce  with  confidence  upon  whether  the 
state  of  the  country  required  or  justified  these  clauses. 
It  is  not,  however,  surprising  that  they  exasperated 
O'Connell  to  the  highest  degree ;  and  at  no  period  of 
his  career  was  his  language  more  violent  than  during 
the  JNIinistry  of  Lord  G-rey.  It  was  at  this  time  that  he 
talked  of  the  '  base,  bloody,  and  brutal  Whigs,'  and 
described  them  as  men  '  with  brains  of  lead  and  hearts 
of  stone  and  fangs  of  iron.*  He  and  Mr.  Stanley 
hated  one  another  \vith  the  most  intense  hatred ;  and 
Parliamentary  oratory  contains  very  few  instances  of 
fiercer  and  more  powerful  invective  than  they  ex- 
changed. Sir  Robert  Peel  and  the  Tories  strongly  sup- 
ported the  Coercion  Bill,  and  the  House  was  generally 


IRISH  cnuRCii.  265 

bitterly  hostile  to  0' Conn  ell ;  but  the  extraordinary 
vigour  and  eloquence  of  his  opposition  had  at  length 
their  reward.  The  Coercion  Bill  was  carried  in  1833, 
but  a  strong  feeling  against  its  political  clauses  was 
aroused  among  Liberals  ;  and  when  it  was  intended 
to  renew  them  in  the  following  year,  there  was  a  dis- 
sension in  the  Cabinet,  of  which  O'Connell  was  in- 
formed, and  which  he  disclosed  in  the  House.  The 
result  was  that  tlie  Coercion  Bill  was  only  re-enacted 
in  a  modified  form  and  without  the  political  clauses. 
Lord  Grey  retired  from  office,  and  Lord  Melbourne 
became  the  head  of  a  Ministry  of  which  O'Connell  was 
the  chief  support. 

The  measures,  however,  which  were  carried  by  the 
reformed  Parliament  were  not  simply  coercive  ;  they 
were  also  in  a  very  large  measure  remedial.  The 
subject  which,  if  not  the  most  important,  was  at  least 
the  most  eagerly  discussed,  was  the  Irish  Church  ;  and 
tliore  was  none  upon  which  O'Connell  felt  more  keenly. 
Himself  a  fervent  Catholic,  the  main  object  of  his 
policy  was  to  raise  the  Catholics  out  of  the  condition 
of  a  proscribed  and  degraded  caste  ;  and  there  is  much 
reason  for  believing  that  he  would  have  given  up  the 
notion  of  Repeal  if  he  could  liave  otherwise  secured 
tliis  equality.  With  the  exception  of  his  advocacy  of 
Kepeal,  no  part  of  his  Irish  policy  injured  him  so 
much  in  the  eyes  of  the  Englisli  people  as  the  opinions 
he  hazarded  about  the  Church;  but,  judged  by  the 
light  of  the  events  of  our  own  day,  they  will  be  pro- 
nounced very  reasonable  and  very  moderate.  He  never 
appears  to  have  advocated  the  witlulrawal  of  all  re- 
venue from  the  Protestants,  nor  did  he  desire  any 
fiuihcr  assistance  than  glebes  to  be  given  to  the 
priests.  The  details  of  his  proposal  were  more  than 
once  varied,  but  the  main  object  was  to  put  an  end  to 
13 


266  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

the  grievance  of  tithes.  The  Church  lands  lie  was 
willing  to  leave  wholly  or  in  a  very  great  degree  with 
their  present  possessors,  and  tliey  would  furnish  a  reve- 
nue which  with  very  moderate  assistance  from  volimtary 
sources  would  be  amply  sufficient  for  the  real  wants 
of  the  Protestants.  The  tithe  fund  before  all  things 
was  to  cease  to  be  a  tribute  paid  to  the  Protestant 
Church.  About  its  disposition  there  was  much  differ- 
ence of  opinion.  Probably  the  most  popular  solution 
would  have  been  the  simple  cessation  of  the  tithe 
payment,  and  this  would  have  been  a  benefit  both  to 
the  landlords  and  tenants ;  but  other  schemes,  such  as 
applying  the  fund  to  secular  instruction  or  to  build- 
ing new  charitable  institutions,  were  advocated ;  and 
O'Connell  appears  finally  to  have  settled  upon  the  pre- 
cise disposition  which  many  years  after  his  death  was 
adopted  by  INIr.  Gladstone.  '  ]\Iy  plan,'  he  said,  in  a 
letter  to  Mr.  Sliarman  Crawford  in  September  1834, 
'  is  to  apply  the  fund  in  the  various  counties  of  Ire- 
land to  relieve  the  occupiers  of  land  from  grand  jury 
cess,  ....  to  defray  all  the  expenses  of  dispensaries, 
infirmaries,  hospitals,  and  asylums,  and  to  multiply  the 
number  of  these  institutions  until  they  become  quite 
sufficient  for  the  wants  of  tlie  sick.' 

In  this,  however,  as  on  many  other  points,  O'Connell 
was  considerably  in  advance  of  his  age.  With  the 
exception  of  a  few  Radicals,  no  class  in  England  would 
have  tolerated  such  a  measure.  A  growing  school  at 
Oxford  and  in  the  country  looked  upon  all  interference 
with  Church  revenues  as  sacrilege,  and  the  famous 
work  of  Mr.  Gladstone  embodied  and  widely  diffused 
what  may  be  called  the  transcendental  arguments  in 
favour  of  establisliments.  Sir  R.  Peel  admitted  that 
the  State  had  a  right  to  change  and  regulate  the  dis- 
tribution of  Church  revenues,  but  he  denied  that  it 


iRisn  ciiuRcn.  267 

hail  any  right  to  divert  them  from  Church  purposes  ; 
and,  in  the  case  of  the  Irisli  Cliurch,  he  maintained  on 
the  ground  of  the  Act  of  Union,  that  disendowment 
would  be  a  distinct  breach  of  faith.  That  Act,  he 
said,  '  differs  in  this  respect  from  an  ordinary  law,  that 
it  was  a  national  compact,  involving*  the  conditions  on 
which  the  Protestant  Parliament  of  Ireland  resigned 
its  independent  existence.  In  that  compact  express 
provision  is  made  which,  if  anything  can  have,  has  an 
obligation  more  binding  than  that  of  ordinary  law. 
....  A  riglit  was  reserved  in  that  Act  with  respect 
to  tlie  removal  of  the  civil  disabilities  of  the  Catho- 
lics, but  no  right  was  reserved  to  the  United  Parliament 
to  deal  with  the  property  of  the  Church  of  Ireland.' 

The  Tory  party,  therefore,  whether  they  adopted 
the  extreme  views  of  the  new  Oxford  school  or  the 
more  moderate  views  of  Sir  Robert  Peel,  wore  united 
in  resisting  any  diminution  of  the  revenues  of  the 
Cliuvch  ;  and  they  could  enlist  in  their  cause  the  two 
cries  of  '  So  Popery '  and  '  the  Church  in  danger,'  which 
were  probably  tho  most  powerful  in  England.  The 
Whigs  were  not  equally  united.  A  small  but  very 
able  section  asfreed  with  Sir  Robert  Peel  that  the 
power  of  Parliament  extended  only  to  the  redistri- 
bution, but  not  to  the  alienation  of  ecclesiastical 
revenues.  The  main  body,  liowever,  including  Lord 
Grey,  Lord  Althorp,  and  Lord  John  Russell,  maintained 
that  Parliament  had  a  right,  when  the  wants  of  the 
Protestants  were  adequately  supplied,  to  apply  the 
surplus  revenues  of  the  Church  to  purjDoses  of  edu- 
cation or  of  charity  that  would  be  beneficial  to  the 
whole  community.  The  first  attempt  to  carry  out  this 
policy  was  in  the  Ministry  of  Lord  Grey,  when  a  clause 
was  introduced  in  the  '  Church  Temporalities  Act,'  to 
give  Parliament  th.e   disposal   of   a  surplus  resulting 


268  DANIEL    O'CONNELL. 

from  the  grant  of  perpetual  leases  of  Church  lands ; 
but  this  clause,  which  was  very  restricted  in  its  opera- 
tion, was  abandoned  in  committee  as  likely  to  en- 
danger the  success  of  the  Bill.  The  subject  was  once 
or  twice  renewed  during  the  same  JMinistry,  and  the 
opinion  of  the  Government  clearly  pronounced,  but 
notliing  decided  was  done  till  Sir  Robert  Peel  came 
into  office.  He  was  governing  with  a  minority  of  the 
House,  and  his  Ministry  was  obviously  ephemeral.  He 
brought  in  a  measure  for  commuting  Irish  tithes  in  1835, 
when  Lord  John  Russell  moved  as  an  amendment  the 
famous  Appropriation  Clause,  affirming  that  any  surplus 
revenues  of  the  Irish  Church  not  required  for  the  reli- 
gious wants  of  the  Protestants  should  be  applied  to 
tlie  moral  and  religious  education  of  the  people  at 
large,  and  that  no  measure  concerning  tithes  would  be 
satisfactory  which  did  not  embody  this  principle.  The 
resolution  was  carried.  Sir  R.  Peel  retired  from  office, 
and  Lord  Melbourne  became  Prime  INIinister. 

If  it  be  considered  as  a  mere  party  move,  there  has 
seldom  been  a  more  disastrous  mistake  than  that  of 
the  \Vhigs  in  bringing  forw^ard  this  Appropriation 
Clause,  and  in  selecting  it  as  the  question  on  which  to 
overthrow  the  first  feeble  Ministry  of  Sir  R.  Peel. 
At  the  same  time,  there  never  was  a  more  loyal  or 
moderate  attempt  to  remedy  a  great  injustice.  By 
the  confession  of  all  parties,  the  existing  condition  of 
the  Church  was  scandalous  in  the  extreme,  the  number 
and  emoluments  of  the  bishops  ^vere  absurdly  out  of 
proportion  to  the  numbers  of  their  flocks,  and  there 
were  151  instances  of  parishes  containing  not  a  single 
Protestant.  Few  persons  will  now  deny  that  the 
Church  revenues  might  have  been  justly  diminished,  or 
that  an  application  of  a  portion  of  them  to  the  benefit 
of  the  whole  community  would  have  strengthened  the 


CirURCII  REFORMS.  269 

position  of  the  Church.  Tlie  Ministry  of  Lord  Mel- 
bourne, however,  soon  found  the  task  they  had  under- 
taken beyond  their  powers.  Lord  J.  Russell,  as 
Minister,  duly  brought  in  the  clause  as  a  portion  of 
tlie  Bill  for  commuting  tithes,  but  although  it  was 
carried  through  the  House  of  Commons  it  was  only  by 
a  small  majority,  and  a  majority  of  the  English  mem- 
bers were  against  the  Government.  Mr.  Stanley,  the 
most  brilliant  orator,  and  Sir  J.  Graham,  who  was  one 
of  the  ablest  administrators  of  the  Whijrs,  with  a  few 
others,  had  seceded  from  the  party  on  this  question  as 
early  as  1834,  and  were  strenuously  opposed  to  the 
Government.  O'Connell  ridiculed  the  small  number 
of  the  secessionists,  quoting  with  great  effect  the  lines 
of  Canning — 

Adown  thy  dale,  romantic  Ashbourne,  glides 
The  Derby  Dilly  -with  just  six  insides. 

But  the  ability  and  the  political  weight  then  with- 
drawn from  the  Whigs  were  never  adequately  re- 
placed. The  violence  of  O'Connell,  who  supported 
the  Appropriation  Clause  with  passionate  zeal,  pro- 
duced a  strong  Conservative  reaction  in  England.  The 
King  was  known  to  be  opposed  to  the  policy  of  his 
^Ministers,  and  the  House  of  Lords  by  large  majorities 
rejected  the  clause.  In  the  meantime  the  tithes  ques- 
tion continued  in  abeyance,  and  it  was  plain  that  until 
it  was  settled  there  could  be  no  real  peace  in  Ireland. 
There  were  not  wanting  those  who  urged  the  Ministers, 
as  the  sole  means  of  carrying  their  Bill,  to  avail 
tliemselves  of  the  fierce  Radical  spirit  wliicli  was  abroad, 
and  which  demanded  the  subversion  of  the  House  of 
Lords  or  its  organic  change.  Happily,  however,  those 
who  tlien  guided  the  policy  of  England  were  deeply 
and  fervently  attached  to  the  constitution.  Had  they 
persevered,  a  violent  revolutionary  spirit  might  have 


270  DANIEL    OCO^'NELL. 

arisen ;  and,  by  abandoning  the  Appropriation  Clause 
in  1838,  they  probably  saved  the  country  from  an  irre- 
trievable disaster  at  the  cost  of  a  ruinous  I'^aitj  humi- 
liation. 

But  although  this  measure  failed,  two  important 
Church  reforms  were  carried.  By  '  the  Church  Tem- 
poralities Act  of  1833,'  the  revenues  of  the  Church 
were  redistributed  and  its  most  excessive  abuses  cor- 
rected. Two  archbishoprics  and  eight  bishoprics,  as 
well  as  a  number  of  minor  dignitaries,  were  abolished. 
Considerable  reductions  were  made  in  the  revenues  of 
the  other  bishoprics,  and  provision  was  made  out  of 
the  surplus  thus  obtained  for  augmenting  small  livings 
and  building  glebes  and  churches.  The  Establishment 
was  thus  made  more  defensible  than  before.  If  it  con- 
tinued to  be  an  anomaly  it  ceased  to  be  a  scandal ;  its 
offices  were  no  longer  pampered  sinecures,  and  its  digni- 
ties at  last  bore  a  fair  proportion  to  the  number  of  its 
worshippers.  In  one  respect  the  Bill  was  a  benefit  to 
the  Catholics,  for  the  Church  cess,  which  had  been 
levied  chiefly  from  Catholics  and  dispensed  by  Protes- 
tant vestries,  was  replaced  by  a  tax  upon  the  clergy  for 
the  repair  of  churches.  The  unceremonious  way  in 
which  superfluous  bishoprics  were  abolished  gave  great 
offence  in  some  quarters  in  England,  and  was  one  of 
the  proximate  causes  of  the  Tractarian  movement. 
A  still  more  important  reform  was  after  long  delay 
and  many  vicissitudes  at  last  effected  in  1838,  with  the 
concurrence  of  both  of  the  great  parties  in  Parliament. 
I  mean  the  substitution  of  a  land  tax  for  the  old 
system  of  tithes.  By  this  substitution  the  burden  was 
removed  from  the  peasants,  who  were  nearly  all  Eoman 
Catholics,  and  imposed  on  the  landlords,  who  were 
nearly  all  Protestants.  Twenty-five  per  cent,  was  taken 
off  the  clerical  income    derived  from    tit  lies  in   con- 


TITHES  coMrosiTioN.  271 

eideration  of  tlie  certainty,  facility,  and  inexpensivc- 
ness  of  its  collection  under  the  new  system. 

This  measure  was  violently  opposed  by  O'Connell, 
who  desired  to  see  the  tithes  either  simply  abolished 
or  diverted  from  Church  purposes,  a  course  which  would 
undoubtedly  have  been  the  most  popular  in  Ireland. 
It  was  contended  by  the  political  economists  that  the 
change  would  give  no  real  relief  to  the  tenant,  as  the 
burden  that  was  transferred  to  the  landlord  would  be 
met  by  a  corresponding  increase  of  rent.  But  this, 
like  all  similar  doctrines  of  political  economy,  is  true 
only  in  as  far  as  land  is  dealt  with  simply  and  rigidly 
on  commercial  principles,  and  in  Ireland  as  a  matter 
of  fact  it  l\as  never  generally  been  let  at  the  extreme 
competitive  price.  Of  this  fact  the  great  place  which 
tlie  middlemen  occupy  in  Irish  agrarian  history  is  a 
decisive  proof.  The  Irish  landlords  readily  assumed 
the  burden  in  consideration  of  the  land  tax  being 
applied  to  the  support  of  their  own  Church,  and  the 
rents  were  not,  I  believe,  in  general  raised.  It 
is  worthy,  too,  of  notice,  that  when  the  Established 
Clmrch  w^as  recently  disendowed,  no  voice  outside  of 
the  landlord  class  was  raised  in  favour  of  simply 
abolishing  the  land  tax,  although  that  tax  was  said  to 
liave  been  in  reality  paid  by  the  occupying  class,  and 
although  it  is  probable  that  the  majority  of  that 
class,  if  they  had  been  consulted  in  1835,  would  have 
voted  for  the  abolition  of  tithes. 

The  tithes  composition  measure  had  the  disadvan- 
taire  of  beinjr  conceded,  like  most  Irish  measures,  to 
violence,  and  it  has  not  proved  a  final  arrangement. 
Subject  to  these  qualifications,  however,  it  deserves 
the  highest  praise.  Few  laws  have  ever  been  so 
completely  successful  in  cmdicating  a  great  source 
of    crime   and    allaying    dangerous    agitiition.      The 


272  DANIEL    OCONXELL. 

Protestant  clergy,  constituting  a  class  of  country  gentry 
where  such  a  class  was  peculiarly  needed,  and  dis- 
charging many  charitable  and  civilising  functions  to- 
wards the  Catholic  population,  have,  when  they  have 
abstained  from  active  proselytising,  been  in  general 
eminently  popular,  and  the  signal  devotion  which 
they  manifested  amid  the  horrors  of  the  famine  ob- 
tained for  them  a  large  measure  of  well-earned  grati- 
tude. During  the  last  twenty-five  years,  in  the  worst 
periods  of  Irish  crime,  and  in  the  worst  localities,  they 
have  invariably  been  unmolested  and  unmenaced.  With 
the  exceptions  of  the  priests  and  of  converts,  no  class 
of  Irishmen  has  been  very  bitterly  opposed  to  them, 
and  probably  few  great  measures  have  excited  less 
genuine  enthusiasm  in  Ireland  than  the  English  mea- 
sure for  disendowing  them. 

In  addition  to  these  measures,  others  of  great  import- 
ance were  taken.  Tlie  system  of  national  education, 
like  all  the  branches  of  Irish  administration,  had  been 
for  a  long  time  grossly  unjust  towards  the  Catholics. 
The  Charter  schools  of  Primate  Boulter  were  distinctly 
proselytising,  and  some  of  the  most  iniquitous  of  the 
penal  laws  were  those  which  forbade  Catholics  from 
engaging  in  the  work  of  education.  The  'Kildarc 
Street  Society,'  which  received  an  endowment  from 
Government,  and  directcnl  national  education  from 
1812  to  1831,  was  not  proselytising,  but  its  manage- 
ment fell  into  the  hands  of  the  Evangelical  part}^, 
which  was  rapidly  rising  in  Ireland,  and  a  rule  was 
adopted,  making  the  reading  of  the  Bil)lc  without 
note  or  comment  compulsory  in  its  scliools.  Such  a 
rule  was  in  direct  contradiction  to  the  teaching  of  the 
Catholic  Church,  and  it  naturally  created  very  general 
discontent.  In  1831,  however,  and  1832,  a  system  of 
national   education    was    founded    in    Ireland,   which 


NATIONAL    EDUCATION.  273 

continues,  though  seriously  modified,  to  the  present  day. 
It  was  chiefly  devised  by  Lord  Anglesey,  Mr.  Plunket, 
Mr.  Stanley,  Mr.  Blake,  and  Lord  Cloncurry,  and  was 
intended  to  give  the  whole  mass  of  the  people  a  united 
secular  education,  while  it  offered  facilities  for  separate 
religious  education.  A  large  proportion,  however,  of 
the  Protestant  clergy  discovered  that  there  were  sundry 
passages  in  the  Old  Testament  and  in  the  Ordination 
Service  which  made  it  criminal  for  them  to  take  part 
in  any  system  of  education  in  which  they  were  not 
allowed  to  teach  all  their  pupils  the  Bible,  and  they 
accordingly  set  up  a  rival  system,  which  still  exists, 
and  they  thus  threw  the  national  education  to  a  great 
extent  into  the  hands  of  the  priests.  These  latter, 
however,  gradually  became  more  and  more  Ultramon- 
tane ;  it  became  one  of  their  great  ends  to  prevent  the 
members  of  the  two  religions  associating,  and  to  im- 
pregnate all  teaching  on  purely  secular  subjects  with 
tlieir  distinctive  ecclesiastical  tenets  ;  and  they  accord- 
ingly grew  very  hostile  to  the  Kational  Board.  The 
original  system  was  much  tampered  with  to  meet  their 
Avishes.  The  Church  Education  schools,  in  which  the 
Bible  is  taught  to  everyone,  are  still  unassisted  by  the 
Government,  but  endowments  have  been  freely  given  to 
sectarian  convent  schools  managed  by  monks  or  nuns. 
But  these  unjust,  because  une(i^ual,  departures  from  the 
original  design  have  not  saved  the  national  system 
from  the  unanimous  condemnation  of  the  Catholic 
hierarchy.  On  the  whole,  tliat  system  has  conferred 
upon  the  rising  generation  of  Irishmen  tlie  inestimable 
blessing  of  a  sound  secular  education;  it  has  contri- 
buted in  some  degree  to  allay  the  animosity  of  sects ; 
and  it  would,  I  believe,  be  difficult  to  cite  a  single 
instance  of  a  Catholic  who  has  become  a  Protestant, 


274  DANIEL    OCONNELL. 

or  a  Protestant  Avho  has  become  a  Catholic,  under  its 
influence. 

The  liberal  educational  policy  of  the  Whigs  was 
fully  adopted  and  extended  by  the  Tory  Government 
of  Sir  E.  Peel.  The  College  of  Maynooth,  intended 
for  the  education  of  the  Irish  priests,  is  one  of  the  few 
existing  institutions  which  owe  their  origin  to  that 
Irish  Parliament  which  is  so  often  represented  as  the 
hotbed  of  bigotry.  It  was  founded  during  the  vice- 
royalty  of  Lord  Fitzwilliam,  when  the  French  war 
excluded  Irishmen  from  France,  and  when  the  dread 
of  an  influx  of  French  ideas  was  very  strong,  and  it 
was  a  great  boon  to  tlie  Catholics,  who  previously  pos- 
sessed no  means  of  educating  their  own  clergy  in  their 
own  land.  Sir  E.  Peel  in  1845,  besides  granting 
.30,000/.  for  building  and  improvements,  nearly  tripled 
the  annual  grant,  and  gave  it  a  character  of  per- 
manence by  cliarging  it  on  the  consolidated  fund. 
lie  in  the  same  yeav  established  the  three  Queen's 
Colleges,  in  which  a  perfectly  unsectarian  education 
was  provided — an  advantage  of  which,  in  spite  of  many 
priestly  anathemas,  the  Catholics  have  largely  availed 
themselves. 

Two  other  measures  completed  the  work  of  reform. 
Although  Ireland  was  one  of  the  poorest  countries  in 
Europe — although  a  very  large  proportion  of  its  popula- 
tion were  continually  on  the  verge  of  starvation — no 
legal  provision  existed  for  the  destitute  until  1838, 
when  the  Irish  Poor-law  was  enacted.  Althou^rh  the 
corporations  had  been  legally  thrown  open  to  Catholics 
in  1793,  their  constitution  was  so  close  that  the  admis- 
sion was  practically  illusory,  and  the  principal  cities 
of  an  essentially  Catholic  country  were  almost  exclu- 
sively governed  by  Protestants.  For  forty-seven  years 
after  the  Catholics  had  been  made  eligible  not  one  was 


REFORM   OF   TOE   CORPORATIONS.  275 

elected  into  the  corporation  of  Dublin.  To  remedy 
this  gross  injustice,  the  Government  of  Lord  Melbourne, 
having  carried  a  measure  reforming  tlie  English  cor- 
porations, brought  forward  in  1835  a  similar  measure 
for  Ireland,  but  it  was  ardently  opposed  by  Sir  Robert 
Peel,  and  rejected  by  the  House  of  Lords.  The  Tory 
party  was  naturally  alarmed  at  the  transfer  of  power 
that  would  be  effected,  and  O'Connell  had  injudiciously 
predicted  that  the  corporations  would  be  ^  normal 
schools  of  agitation.'  The  House  of  Lords  was  willing 
to  abolish  the  close  corporations,  but  refused  to  appoint 
new  bodies,  and  proposed  to  destroy  all  municipal 
government  in  Ireland,  and  to  substitute  for  the  mu- 
nicipal authorities  functionaries  appointed  by  the 
Crown.  The  contest  between  the  two  Houses  was 
as  obstinate  as  about  the  Appropriation  Clause,  and  it 
continued  till  1840,  when  it  was  ended  by  a  compro- 
n-iise.  The  Bill  was  passed,  but  only  in  a  curtailed 
and  mutilated  form,  and  lifty-eight  corporations  werr 
abolished.  O'Connell  soon  afterwards  became  Lord 
Mayor  of  Dublin — a  triumph  which  occasioned  among 
liis  followers  much  vulgar  and  paltry  glorification,  but 
which  was  really  under  the  circumstances  of  some 
importance — and  a  petition  in  favour  of  Repeal  was 
voted  by  a  large  majority  of  the  corporation. 

All  these  measures  were  the  consequence  of  the  new 
political  importance  which  the  Catholics  had  acquired, 
and  of  the  pressure  which  they  exerted  upon  public 
opinion  under  the  influence  of  O'Connell.  Consider- 
able however  as  they  were,  they  by  no  means  satisfied 
the  great  agitator,  who  would  be  content  with  nothing 
short  of  a  complete  destruction  of  the  edifice  of 
ascendency,  and  who  had  strong  special  objections  to 
two  of  the  measures  I  have  enumerated.  As  the 
mouthpiece  of  the  priests,  he  denounced  the  Queen's 


276 

Colleges  as  '  godless  colleges,'  borrowing  the  phrase 
and  adopting  the  argument  of  Sir  R.  luglis,  a  leader 
of  the  most  extreme  type  of  Tory.  His  objections  to 
the  poor-laws  were  of  a  different  kind.  He  maintained 
with  great  force  of  argument  the  most  rigid  and  most 
impopular  doctrines  of  the  economists  concerning  the 
evils  of  guaranteeing  relief  to  able-bodied  paupers,  and 
he  also  argued  that  a  legal  provision  for  the  poor 
would  check  the  spontaneous  charity  for  which  the 
lower  classes  in  Ireland  were  remarkable,  and  that  the 
workhouses  would  prove  dangerous  to  female  purity. 
Tlie  extent  and  intensity  of  Irish  poverty  he  had  no 
disposition  to  underrate,  but  the  remedies  he  proposed 
were  of  a  different  kind.  He  flung  the  whole  weight 
of  his  influence  into  the  temperance  movement,  and  he 
urged  upon  the  Grovernmcnt  the  propriety  of  abolishing 
titlies,  imposing  a  tax  upon  absentees,  and  giving 
assistance  to  emigration,  which  he  justly  looked  upon 
as  the  only  remedy  that  was  adequate  to  the  disease. 
Sir  11.  Peel,  on  the  other  hand,  maintained  that  the 
lung  sea  voyage  would  always  stand  in  the  way  of  its 
adoption  to  any  considerable  extent.' 

AVliile  maintaining  these  views  on  Irish  politics,  he 
adopted  on  imperial  questions  the  programme  of  the 
most  extreme  Kadicals,  advocating  manhood  suffrage, 
vote  by  ballot,  short  Parliaments,  and  the  substitution 
of  an  elective  for  an  hereditary  Upper  House.  This 
was  i^erhaps  the  gravest  error  of  his  career,  and  the 
extravagance  of  his  opinions,  and  the  incendiary  and 
vituperative  language  with  which  he  defended  them, 
alienated  from  him  the  great  majority  of  educated 
men,  and  made  his  alliance  witli  the  Whigs  a  source 
of  weakness  to  his  friends.     Nor  does  he,  I  conceive,  in 

'  '  AnTuiJil  Eogistcr,'  1837,  p.  70.  At  the  lime  of  llio  fjimino,  how- 
evcr,  Peel  recommcndt*!  Government  aid  to  cmigr.-ition. 


HIS   DEMOCRACY.  277 

this  part  of  his  career,  deserve  much  credit  for  sincerity. 
The  levelling  disposition,  the  envious  hatred  of  supe- 
riority and  rank,  which  characterises  the  genuine 
English  Radical,  was  wholly  foreign  to  his  nature,  and 
is  indeed  rarely  found  among  Irishmen.  His  loyalty 
to  the  Sovereign  was  very  warm,  and  not  unfrequently 
showed  itself  in  language  of  almost  Oriental  servility. 
His  democratic  crusade  was  probably  simply  an  inci- 
dent of  his  Irish  policy.  An  Irishman  and  a  Catholic 
above  all  things,  passionately  attached  to  his  country 
and  his  creed,  he  attacked  with  but  little  scruple  any 
institution  whiclrstood  in  their  way.  To  make  numbers 
rather  than  wealth  the  source  of  political  power  would 
be  to  increase  the  relative  importance  of  Ireland  in  the 
Empire,  and  of  the  Catholics  in  Ireland.  In  judging  his 
conduct,  we  must  remember  that  his  policy  was  chiefly 
opposed  by  the  aristocratic  part  of  the  State,  that  the 
House  of  Lords  had  steadily  and  persistently  defeated 
or  mutilated  every  attempt  to  raise  the  Catholics  into 
equality  with  the  Protestants,  that  the  bitterest  in- 
vectives were  continually  directed  against  him  within 
its  walls,  and  tliat  it  appeared  idle  to  expect  that  Irish 
tithes  could  ever  be  abolished  with  its  consent.  Lord 
Lyndhurst  pronounced  tlie  Irish  to  be  '  aliens  in  race, 
in  country,  and  religion.'  O'Connell  retorted  by  fierce 
denunciations  of  an  hereditary  caste  overriding  for 
selfish  purposes  the  decisions  of  the  representatives  of 
the  people.  The  Tory  party  desired  to  restrict  the 
franchise  in  Ireland  ;  they  had  already  abolished  the 
forty-shilling  freeholders,  and  Lord  Stanley  long 
afterwards  ^  attempted  to  carry  the  same  policy  still 
farther  by  imposing  a  system  of  registration  so  cum- 
brous and  so  troublesome  that,  if  it  had  not  been 
defeated  by  the  Whigs,  it  would  have  virtually  dis- 

'   III  18  !0. 


278  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

francbised  multitudes.  O'Connell  met  this  policy  by 
maintainiug  the  natural  right  of  every  man  to  a  vote. 
His  opponents  in  England  appealed  without  the 
smallest  scruple,  and  witli  eminent  success,  to  the 
anti-Papal  and  anti-Irish  feeling  which  was  so  strong 
in  the  lower  strata  of  the  English  population.  He 
retaliated  by  placing  himself  at  the  head  of  the  wild 
movement  for  radical  reform,  and  he  carried  his  pro- 
pagandism,  not  only  into  the  great  towns  of  the  north 
of  England,  but  also  into  Calvinistic  Scotland.  The 
party  was  at  this  time  singularly  deficient  in  eloquence, 
and  Hume,  who  was  its  most  influential  member,  wae 
perhaps  the  most  tangled  and  inarticulate  speaker  who 
ever  succeeded  as  a  leader  in  England.  '  Ho  would 
speak  better,'  O'Connell  once  said,  '  if  he  finished  one 
sentence  before  he  beg-an  the  next  but  one  after.' 
O'Connell,  trusting  to  his  marvellous  powers  of  popular 
oratory,  defied  religious  prc^'udices  and  national  anti- 
pathy, and  rarely  failed  to  win  a  momentary  triumph  ; 
but  his  language  was  not  suited  to  a  cultivated  English 
taste,  and  the  revolutionary  opinions  he  advocated,  and 
the  coarse  personal  abuse  in  which  lie  continually 
indulged,  justly  lowered  his  influence  with  all  sober 
persons. 

The  part  wliich  he  played  in  imperial  politics  was, 
however,  far  from  contemptible.  Perhaps  the  three 
most  important  Parliamentary  measures  of  the  present 
century  are  the  emancipation  of  the  Catholics,  the 
Keform  Bill  of  1832,  and  the  establishment  of  free 
trade  in  corn.  The  first  was  chiefly  due  to  O'Connell. 
In  one  of  the  most  important  divisions  in  the  first 
Parliament  of  William  IV.  his  followers  turned  the 
balance  in  favour  of  the  second.  He  was  an  early  and 
a  strenuous  advocate  of  the  third.  Unlike  those  petty 
traitors  who,  while  professing  to  follow  in  his  steps. 


niS   CAREER   IN   PARLIAMENT. 


279 


have  associated  the  cause  of  Irish  nationality  with  the 
defence  of  negro  slavery  in  America,  of  foreign  mili- 
taiy  occupation  in  Italy,  of  Imperialism  in  France,  and 
of  assassination  at  home,  he  was  steadily  Liberal  in 
every  part  of  his  policy.  Parliamentary  reform,  free 
trade,  the  emancipation  of  negros,  the  abolition  of 
lio<^^in-  in  the  army,  the  wrongs  of  Poland,  the  repeal 
of  The  taxes  on  knowledge,  were  among  the  causes  he 
most  ardently  defended.  Exercising  an  absolute  autho- 
rity over  a  large  body  of  members,  and  availing  himselt 
with  gi-eat  skill  of  the  divisions  of  parties,  he  was 
always  a  great  power  in  the  House  of  Commons,  though 
he  never  succeeded  in  altogether  catching  its  tone. 

In  debate  he  had  to  contend  with  almost  overwhelm- 
m<r  obstacles.     All  parties  wore  in  general  combined 
ao-ainst  him,  and  all  the  great  English  speakers  were 
his  opponents.    On  Irish  questions  he  had  the  immense 
disadvantage  of  speaking  amid  the  derisive  clamour  of 
liis  audience,  while  his  adversaries  were  cheered  to  tlie 
echo.      The    great   majority    of  English    and    Scotcli 
members  regarded  him  with    the    strongest  personal 
and  political  antipathy,  and,  with    the    exception  of 
Si,eil-who,  though  a  very  brilliant  rhetorician,  was 
scarcely  a  great  debater-no  Irish  member  was  able  to 
give  him  any  considerable  assistance.     Almost  all  the 
eminent  men  he  had  to  encounter  had  entered  Parlia- 
ment very   young,   and   had   attained   their    skill   in 
debate  and   their  knowledge  of  their  audience  by  a 
Parliamentary  education    of  many  years.      0  Connell 
came  into  the  House  of  Commons  at  fifty-four;  and  a 
ife  spent  in  practising  at  the  Irish  Bar,  or  haranguing 
an  Irish  populace,  was  an  exceedingly  bad  preparation 
for  a  Parliamentary  career.     But,  notwithstanding  all 
these  disadvantages,  his  success  as  a  debater  was  very 
great       His  boundless   readiness,  his  power  of  terse, 


280 

nervous,  Demosthenic  reasoning,  his  thorough  mastei^ 
of  the  subject  he  treated,  the  skill  with  which  he  con- 
densed and  pointed  his  case,  and  the  rich  flow  of  his 
humorous  or  pathetic  eloquence,  placed  him  at  once 
in  the  foremost  rank.  At  the  same  time,  his  speeches 
were  extremely  unequal.  It  would  be  easy  to  point 
out  many  that  were  masterpieces  of  masculine  power, 
but  yet  they  were  continually  defaced  by  coarseness 
and  scurrility,  by  recklessness  of  assertion,  and  by  ex- 
travagant violence.  In  a  discussion  on  agricultural 
distress  he  scandalised  all  honest  men  by  proposing  as 
the  sole  adequate  remedy  a  compulsory  reduction  of 
the  national  debt.  He  never  obtained  credit  for  a 
high  sense  of  honour,  and  he  was  lamentably  de- 
ficientc,  in  self-respect.  The  tact  which  he  always 
manifested  in"  dealing  with  the  populace  sometimes 
deserted  him  signally  in  an  assembly  of  gentlemen, 
and,  although  none  of  his  contemporaries  could  argue 
a  particular  question  with  a  more  commanding  power, 
the  general  effect  of  his  speaking  upon  the  educated 
classes  in  England  was  certainly  far  from  favourable. 
As  a  rhetorician  he  was  surpassed  by  Sheil  and 
Macaulay,  but  as  a  debater  he  was  perhaps  only 
equalled  by  jNIr.  Stanley,  who,  though  probably  greatly 
his  inferior  in  general  intellectual  capacity,  brought  to 
the  contest  a  far  purer  taste  and  a  still  fiercer  temper, 
as  well  as  a  w^onderful  command  of  graceful  and  vigo- 
rous English,  and  an  almost  unrivalled  dexterity  in 
dialectic  encounter. 

The  debates  on  jNIr.  Stanley's  Coercion  Bill  were 
perhaps  the  most  splendid  examples  of  his  Parlia- 
mentary powers.  Assisted  only  by  occasional  speeches 
by  Sheil,  he  had  to  bear  the  brunt  of  all  the  eloquence 
of  Macaulay,  Stanley,  and  Peel,  together  with  numbers 
of  minor  orators,  while  Lord  Brougham  was  inveighing 


surroRTS  lord  Melbourne.  281 

a<::ainst  him  in  the  other  House.  Notwithstanding: 
these  powerful  odds,  it  seems  to  have  been  very  gene- 
rally admitted  that  in  eloquence  and  in  force  he  at 
least  held  his  position  throughout.  O'Connell  de- 
scribed the  measure  as  a  Bill  directed  against  a  single 
individual — himself.  The  interruptions  he  met  with 
were  sufficient  to  disconcert  any  less  practised  orator. 
On  one  occasion  his  voice  was  completely  drowned  for 
some  time  by  an  explosion  of  this  inarticulate  elo- 
quence. When  it  had  a  little  subsided,  he  exclaimed 
with  characteristic  impetuosity  that  he  was  not  going 
to  be  put  down  '  by  beastly  bellowings;'  upon  which  a 
member  rose,  and  gravely  observed  that  the  epithet 
'  beastly '  was  out  of  order  when  applied  to  the  excla- 
mations of  members  of  the  House.  O'Connell  pro- 
fessed his  willingness  to  retract  the  obnoxious  ex- 
pression, but  added  some  apologetical  remark  to  the 
effect  that  he  had  never  heard  of  any  bellowings  that 
were  not  beastly.  The  Speaker  decided  that  tlie 
epithet  was  contrary  to  order,  but  not  more  so  than 
the  ejaculations  that  elicited  it. 

His  position  towards  English  parties  during  a  great 
part  of  his  career  Avas  one  of  neutrality.  The  Tories 
he  naturally  detested,  as  the  avowed  enemies  of  Catholic 
emancipation  and  of  reform  ;  the  AVhigs  he  at  one 
time  defined  as  '  Tories  out  of  place ; '  and  there 
was  no  Ministry  to  which  he  was  more  hostile  than 
that  which  originated  the  Coercion  Bill.  When,  how- 
ever, Lord  Melbourne  camo  into  power,  O'Connell 
gave  his  ]\Iinistry  the  whole  weight  of  his  support. 
His  opponents  Lord  Grey  and  Mr.  Stanley  were  no 
longer  in  the  [Ministry.  The  political  clauses  of  the 
Coercion  Bill  had  been  abandoned.  The  Melbourne 
party  had  for  the  first  time  had  the  courage,  by  the 
appropriation   clause,  to   attempt   the   application  of 


282  DANIEL    O'CONNELL. 

some  small  parts  of  the  Irish  Cliurch  property  to 
purposes  of  general  utility,  and  the  Irish  Administra- 
tration  of  Lord  Mulgrave,  Lord  Morpeth,  and  Mr. 
Drummond  was  eminently  liberal  and  just.  The 
Melbourne  ^linistry  exliibited  the  rare  spectacle  of  a 
Grovernment  opposed  by  the  majority  of  the  English 
members  in  the  House  of  Commons,  and  by  the  great 
majority  of  the  House  of  Lords,  and  at  the  same  time 
impopular  witli  the  country,  but  kept  in  power  by  the 
votes  of  the  Irish  members.  O'Connell  supported  it  very 
loyally,  and  although  in  his  position  there  was  perhaps 
no  great  merit  in  not  being  a  place-hunter,  it  is  w^orthy 
of  notice  how  cheerfully  he  acquiesced  in  his  exclusion 
from  a  Ministry  of  which  he  was  for  some  time  the 
mainstay.  On  questions  of  persons  and  offices  the 
JNIinisters  found  him  uniformly  moderate  and  con- 
ciliatory, and  in  this  respect  his  attitude  formed  a 
marked  contrast  to  that  of  Lord  Brougham.  In  1838 
lie  refused  one  of  the  higliest  legal  positions  in  Ireland 
— that  of  Chief  Baron.  The  Repeal  cry  at  this  time 
was  suffered  to  sink,  and  in  Ireland  as  in  England 
O'Connell  steadily  and  powerfully  supported  the  Mi- 
nistry. 

There  can,  however,  be  no  question  that  his  support 
was  ultimately  a  source  of  weakness.  O'Connell  was 
the  especial  bugbear  of  the  English  people — as  he  him- 
self said,  '  the  best-abused  man  alive.'  As  the  typical 
Irishman,  Catholic,  and  Repealer,  he  aroused  against 
himself  the  fiercest  national  and  religious  prejudices  of 
larofe  classes  of  En2:lishmen,  while  others  were  scan- 
dalised  by  his  violent  agitation  for  democratic  reform, 
by  his  advocacy  of  free  trade  in  com,  and  by  the 
coarse,  reckless,  and  vituperative  language  in  which  he 
continually  indulged.  The  downfall  of  the  Melbourne 
j\Iinistry  and  the  complete  triumph  of  Sir  R.  Peel  were 


HIS  UNrorULAEITY  IN  ENGLAND.        283 

due  to  many  causes  which  it  is  not  within  the  object  of 
the  present  work  to  investigate,  but  among  them  the 
almost  universal  dislike  of  O'Connell  in  England,  and 
the  undoubted  fact  that  the  Ministry  subsisted  mainly 
by  his  support,  were  prominent.  The  appropriation 
clause  led  to  a  great  party  humiliation,  because  it 
was  plainly  repugnant  to  the  wishes  of  the  great 
majority  of  the  English  people,  and  the  anti-Popery 
and  anti-Irish  feelings  were  chief  elements  of  the 
strong  popular  sentiment  against  the  Government.  It 
would  have  been  impossible  to  give  O'Connell  a  place 
in  it  without  shattering  it,  and  there  was  no  taunt 
against  Ministers  more  applauded  than  their  alleged 
subserviency  to  the  agitator.  The  House  of  Commons 
seldom  rang  with  more  enthusiastic  plaudits  than  when 
Mr.  Stanley,  in  one  of  his  attacks  upon  the  Govern- 
ment, quoted  these  lines  from  Shakespeare : 

lint  shall  it  be  that  yovL,  that  sot  the  crown 

Upon  tlie  head  of  this  forgetful  man, 

And,  for  his  sake,  -wear  the  detested  blot 

Of  murd'rous  subornation — shall  it  be 

That  you  a  world  of  curses  undergo, 

IJeing  the  agents,  or  base  second  mOans, 

The  cords,  the  ladder,  or  the  hangman  rather  ? 

Oh  !  pardon  me  that  I  descend  so  low 

To  show  the  line  and  the  predicament, 

Wherein  vou  range  under  this  subtle  king. 

Shall  it,  for  shame,  be  fjpoken  in  tliese  days, 

Or  fill  up  chronicles  in  time  to  come, 

That  men  of  your  nobility  and  power 

Did  'gage  them  both  in  an  unjust  behalf, 

As  both  of  you — God  pardon  it ! — liare  done? 

And  shall  it,  in  more  shame,  be  further  spoken, 
That  you  are  fuohd,  discarded,  and  shook  off 
By  liim  for  whom  these  shames  ye  underwent? 

With  purely   political  classes  the  Repeal  policy  of 
O'Connell  was   the  chief  cause    of  his   unpopularity. 


284  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

English  politicians  of  all  classes  were  united  against  it, 
and  the  almost  unanimous  denunciation  of  the  scheme 
by  all  sections  of  the  English  press  has  so  discredited 
it  in  England  that  it  is  somewhat  difficult  to  do  justice 
to  its  supporters.  In  the  opinion  of  the  present  writer 
Eepeal  in  the  form  in  which  it  was  advocated  by 
O'Connell  would  have  been  equally  injurious  to  Ireland 
and  to  the  empire ;  but  there  was  more  to  be  said  for 
the  agitators  than  is  commonly  admitted.  It  should 
be  remembered  that  O'Connell  was  old  enough  to 
recollect  that  Irish  Parliament  which  he  desired  to 
restore ;  that  that  Parliament,  with  all  its  faults, 
contained  a  greater  amount  of  genius  and  patriotism 
than  has  ever,  either  before  or  since,  been  engaged  in 
the  administration  of  Irish  affairs  ;  and  that,  whatever 
may  have  been  the  opinion  of  English  statesmen,  the 
unbribed  talent  of  Ireland  was  almost  unanimous 
against  the  Union.  Canning  had  wittily  compared  the 
project  of  restoring  the  Irish  Parliament  to  a  project 
for  restoring  the  Heptarchy,  but  an  Irish  politician  who 
knew  that  the  Parliament  had  existed  only  thirty  years 
before,  that  many  of  its  members  remained,  and  that 
all  the  local  ties  and  associations  it  liad  formed  wore 
still  full  of  life,  might  be  pardoned  for  thinking  the 
comparison  more  ingenious  than  just.  It  should  be  re- 
membered too,  in  estimating  the  sincerity  of  O'Connell, 
that  he  had  made  his  maiden  speech  against  tlie  Union  ; 
that  he  liad  declared  in  that  speech  that,  so  far  from 
desiring  to  purchase  emancipation  by  the  Union,  he 
would  rather  the  whole  penal  code  should  be  re-enacted 
than  that  the  Union  should  be  passed ;  that  he  had 
reverted  again  and  again  to  the  subject  before  emanci- 
pation had  been  carried  ;  and  that  in  his  dissatisfaction 
with  the  TJnion  and  its  results  lie  probably  reflected  the 
judgment,  or  at  least  the  feeling,  of  some  five-sixths  of 


niS   AGITATIONS.  285 

Hie  people  of  Ireland.  He  advocated  Repeal  partly,  no 
doubt,  on  the  broad  ground  of  nationality,  but  much 
more  frequently  on  account  of  most  definite  grievances. 
He  repeatedly  urged  as  liis  main  reason  that  he  could 
not  obtain  'justice  to-  Ireland'  from  the  Parliament 
in  Westminster,  and  by  this  phrase  he  appears  to  have 
meant  a  condition  of  government  in  which,  in  the  eyes 
of  the  State,  an  Irish  Catholic  should  be  placed  on  a 
level  of  perfect  equality  with  an  English  or  an  Irish 
Protestant.  This  aim  has  been  of  late  years  fully 
attained,  but  the  very  magnitude  of  the  measures  wliich 
Parliament  has  thought  necessary  to  its  accomplish- 
ment is  a  justification  of  the  complaints  of  O'Connell. 
It  was  impossible  that  emancipation,  conceded  in  the 
manner  it  was,  sliould  liavo  been  accepted  by  the 
Catholics  as  sufficient,  and  before  the  measure  had 
been  carried  O'Connell,  in  evidence  before  Parliament, 
had  frankly  said  '  that  unless  it  was  done  heartily  and 
cordially  it  would  only  give  tliem  an  additional  power, 
and  leave  them  the  stimulant  for  exerting  it.'  An 
attempt  had  been  made  to  deprive  Ireland  of  all 
municipal  freedom,  and  directly  or  indirectly  to  dis- 
franchise the  great  body  of  the  Catholics.  The  Tory 
party  had  so  disposed  of  Government  appointments 
as  virtually  to  continue  the  system  of  disqualifica- 
tion, and  when  the  Melbourne  Ministry  endeavoured 
to  act  with  equality  between  the  two  religions,  and  in 
some  small  degree  to  modify  the  position  of  the  Pro- 
testant establishment,  it  was  destroyed  chiefly  on  this 
very  ground,  and  by  tlie  force  of  the  anti-Irish  and 
anti-Catholic  feeling  in  the  country  the  Tory  Mi- 
nister was  replaced  in  power.  It  was  then,  and  then 
only,  that  O'Connell  threw  himself  heart  and  soul  into 
the  struggle  for  Repeal. 

That  he  was  by  nature  an  agitator  cannot  be  denied; 


286  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

and,  wliile  lie  was  extremely  ambitious,  he  was  at  no 
time  very  high-minded  or  very  scrupulous.  One  of 
the  most  remarkable  features  of  his  character  was  the 
steady  and  laborious  perseverance  with  which  through 
years  of  difficulty  and  discouragement  he  could  sub- 
ordinate all  his  many-sided  activity  to  a  single  am- 
bitious aim.  In  1798,  when  still  a  young  and  unknown 
lawyer,  he  went  through  a  very  dangerous  illness,  and 
it  is  related  of  him  that  when  he  believed  himself  to 
be  dying  he  was  heard  repeating  those  fine  lines  in 
'  Douglas : ' 

Unknown  I  die.     No  tongue  shall  speak  of  nie  : 
Some  noble  spirits,  judging  by  themselves, 
May  yet  conjecture  what  I  might  have  proved, 
And  think  life  only  wanting  to  my  fame. 

He  was  not  one  of  those  men  who  could  ever,  like 
Washington,  have  been  content,  when  he  had  con- 
ferred one  great  blessing  upon  his  countrymen,  to 
retire  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  his  faculties  from  tlje 
arena.  He  loved  power  and  popularity  too  much.  His 
energy  was  inexhaustible.  He  delighted  in  being  con- 
tinually in  the  mouths  of  men,  and  in  exercising  that 
power  of  swaying  great  crowds  which  is  at  once  one 
of  the  most  intoxicating  and  one  of  the  most  dan- 
gerous of  human  gifts.  But  when  all  tliis  is  admitted 
it  remains  true  that  lie  was  much  less  the  creator  than 
the  director  of  the  Repeal  agitation,  and  that  during 
a  great  part  of  his  career  he  acted  rather  the  part  of 
a  moderator  than  of  an  incendiary.  He  allayed  agita- 
tion during  the  short  administration  of  Canning.  He 
acquiesced  with  scarcely  a  show  of  reluctance  in  the 
necessary  disfranchisement  of  tlie  405.  freeholders.  If 
his  conduct  after  tlie  Relief  Bill  was  very  violent,  the 
measures  that  accompanied  it,  the  fierce  spirit  which 
a  protracted  stru5i_<.;le  liad  aroused,  and  the  danger  of 


HEl'EAL.  287 

allowing  such  agitators  as  Feargus  O'Connor  to  direct 
the  storm,  do  much  to  palliate  his  violence.  During 
the  whole  of  the  Melbourne  administration  he  kept 
the  question  of  Kepeal  in  abeyance,  and  distinctly  said 
that  he  would  abandon  the  notion  if  the  English 
Parliament  would  do  justice  to  Ireland,  In  the  second 
Ministry  of  Peel,  it  is  true,  he  threw  away  the  scabbard 
and  threw  all  his  energies  into  the  struggle  for  Repeal ; 
but  even  in  1843,  in  the  very  zenith  of  the  move- 
ment, he  wrote  a  letter  giving  a  decided  prefer- 
ence to  the  much  more  moderate  scheme  of  a  federal 
Union,  under  which  the  Irisli  Parliament  should  be 
restricted  to  local  affairs,  while  an  Imperial  Parliament 
should  manage  imperial  ones.  The  wishes  of  the 
people  and  tlie  policy  of  the  Tories  in  a  great  measure 
forced  him  into  agitation,  and  lie  abandoned  fede- 
ralism simply  because  he  found  it  almost  universally 
unpopular. 

These  facts  are  sufficient  to  show  that  O'Connell  was 
not  the  selfish  and  reckless  incendiary  he  is  sometimes 
considered.  At  the  same  time,  in  spite  of  considerable 
hesitation  and  timidity  in  action,  lie  was  ever  at  heart 
a  fervent  Repealer.  Endowed  to  an  extraordinary 
degree  with  that  '  retrospective  imagination '  which  is 
so  characteristic  of  his  countrymen,  the  recollection  of 
the  Irish  Parliament  had  been  the  earliest  romance  of 
his  life.  His  ambition  had  been  first  kindled  by  those 
orators  who  shed  a  glow  of  such  immortal  eloquence 
over  its  fall.  In  him  as  in  many  Irishmen  the  shame- 
ful story  of  the  Union  awoke  passions  of  the  bitterest 
and  most  enduring  resentment,  and  the  possibility 
of  forming  an  organisation  that  would  restore  the 
Parliament  had  been  present  to  his  mind  through  all 
the  vicissitudes  of  his  career. 

Did  O'Connell  believe  in  tlie  possibility  of  obtaining 


288  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

Repeal   by   agitation?      To   answer  this  question,  as 
Gustave  de  Beaumont  observes,  but  a  little  knowledge 
of  human  nature  is  required.     We  all  know  that  the 
tendency  of  our  minds  is  to  underrate  the  difficulties 
of  attaining  any  object  of  ambition  in  proportion  to 
the  duration  and  tlie  enthusiasm  of  our  desire.     The 
lawyer  after  a  few  hours'  study  of  a  doubtful  case  will 
frequently   become   entirely   identified   with    it,    will 
persuade  himself  that  its   arguments   are   irresistibly 
c6<^cnt,  and  look  forward  with  the  utmost  confidence 
to  its  trivimph.     How  much  more  easily  may  the  poli- 
tician become  overconfident  in  a  cause  which  has  been 
the  dream  of  liis  life,  and  underestimate  the  obstacles 
in  his  path !     It  is  impossible  to  read  tlie  published 
conversations  of  O'Connell  without  feeling  that  he  was 
naturally  of  a  most  sanguine  temperament.     It  is  im- 
possible to  follow  his  career  without  perceiving  that  it 
was  eminently  calculated  to  foster  such  a  temperament. 
He  had  entered  into  politics  upon  an  untrodden  path, 
W'ith  no  precedent  to  guide  him,  with  no  encourage- 
ment to  cheer  him,  with  no  experience  to  sustain  him. 
The  most  illustrious  of  his  fellow-countrymen  had  pre- 
dicted his  failure.     He  had  seen  public  opinion  among 
his  co-religionists  so  faint  as  scarcely  to  be  perceptible 
t)  the  rulers.     He  had  made  it  so  terrible  that  the 
resolution  of  Wellington  and  the  ability  of  Peel  quailed 
beneath  it.     He  had  seen  the  society  of  his  creation 
unable  to  secure  the  attendance  of  ten  members  at  its 
meetings,  and  he  had  made  it  the  ruler  of  Ireland.   He 
had  seen  the  Eoman  Catholic  clergy  equally  submis- 
sive and  powerless,  and   by  their  instrumentality  lie 
had  wielded  the  passions  of  the  nation.    Looking  back 
to  such  a  triumph  as  that  of  1829,  encouraged  by  the 
sympathy  and  admiration  of    the   leading   nations  of 
Europe,  and  idolised  by  the  immense  majority  in  his 


POSSIBLE   SUCCESS   OF   REPEAL.  289 

own,  was  it  surprising  that  he  should  have  entered  with 
confidence  and  witli  cheerfulness  upon  the  struggle? 
His  first  object  was  to  convince  the  people  that  their 
efforts  would  be  successful ;  and  in  convincing  them 
he  strengthened  his  own  conviction.  The  occupation 
of  his  life  for  many  years  was  to  throw  the  Repeal 
arguments  into  the  most  fascinating  and  imposing 
light ;  and  in  doing  so  his  own  belief  in  his  cause  rose 
to  fanaticism.  It  is  related  of  him  that  he  suggested, 
that  but  one  line  should  be  graven  upon  his  tomb — 
'  He  died  a  Repealer.' 

And  was  }iis  hope  so  absolutely  unreasonable  ?  Was 
it  impossible — was  it  even  very  improbable — that  the 
Irish  Parliament  might  have  been  restored  ?  O'Con- 
nell  perceived  clearly  that  the  tendency  of  affairs  in 
Europe  was  towards  the  recognition  of  the  principle 
that  a  nation's  will  is  the  one  legitimate  rule  of  its 
government.  All  rational  men  acknowledged  that  the 
Union  was  imposed  on  Ireland  by  corrupt  means, 
contrary  to  tlie  wisli  of  one  generation.  O'Connell  was 
prepared  to  show,  by  the  protest  of  tlie  vast  majority 
of  the  people,  that  it  was  retained  without  the  acqui- 
escence of  the  next.  He  had  allied  himself  with  the 
parties  that  were  rising  surely  and  rapidly  to  power  in 
England — with  the  democracy,  whose  gradual  progress 
is  effacing  the  most  venerable  landmarks  of  the  con- 
stitution— with  the  Freetraders,  whose  approaching 
triumph  he  had  hailed  and  exulted  in  from  afar.  He 
had  perceived  the  possibility  of  forming  a  powerful 
party  in  Parliament,  which  would  be  free  to  co-operate 
with  all  English  parties  without  coalescing  with  any, 
and  might  thus  turn  the  balance  of  factions,  and  decide 
the  fate  of  Ministries.  He  saw,  too,  that  while  England 
in  a  time  of  peace  might  resist  tlie  expressed  will  of 
the   Irish    nation,   its    policy   would    be    necessarily 


290 

modified  in  time  of  war  ;  and  he  predicted  tliat  should 
there  be  a  collision  with  France  while  the  nation  was 
organised  as  in  '43,  Repeal  would  be  the  immediate 
and  the  inevitable  consequence.  In  a  word,  he  believed 
that  under  a  constitutional  government  the  will  of 
four-fifths  of  a  nation,  if  peacefully,  perseveringly,  and 
energetically  expressed,  must  sooner  or  later  be  tri- 
umphant. If  a  war  had  broken  out  during  the  agita- 
tion— if  the  life  of  O'Connell  had  been  prolonged  ten 
years  longer — if  any  worthy  successor  had  assumed  his 
mantle — if  a  fearful  famine  had  not  broken  the  spirit 
of  the  people — who  can  say  that  the  agitation  would 
not  have  been  successful  ?  Such  a  contest,  however, 
was  too  great  to  be  compressed  into  the  closing  years 
of  a  laborious  life. 

But  then  we  are  met  with  the  ready  answer — the 
Repeal  rent  was  the  object  of  the  Repeal  agitation. 
For  years  this  rent  was  the  ceaseless  subject  of  the 
ridicule  of  the  writers  of  the  British  press,  and  place- 
men of  every  order  declaimed  in  choicest  periods  on 
the  iniquity  of  receiving  money  for  political  services. 
All  this  affected  indignation  appears  to  me,  I  confess, 
singularly  ridiculous.  To  suj^pose  that  a  vast  move- 
ment, extending  over  nearly  the  whole  surface  of 
Ireland,  sending  its  agents  to  every  county  and  to 
every  parish,  exercising  its  influence  upon  every  elec- 
tion, collecting  statistics,  redressing  wrongs,  preparing 
petitions,  and  actively  propagating  its  opinions,  could 
be  created  and  maintained  without  a  regular  tribute, 
is  palpably  absurd.  The  Repeal  rent  was  necessar}'' 
for  the  maintenance  of  the  organisation,  and  it  was 
also  the  most  imposing  manifestation  of  its  power. 
No  equally  efficacious  means  has  ever  been  adopted 
of  giving  cohesion  to  a  great  political  movement,  of 
securing  the  sustained  and  intelligent  co-operation  of 


THE    REPEAL    RENT.  291 

the  people,  of  exliibitiag  beyond  all  question  the 
extent  and  the  intensity  of  tlie  public  feeling,  and  of 
proving  its  progressive  character.  To  make  O'Connell 
the  recipient  of  the  rent  was  the  only  means  of  making 
it  thoroughly  popular,  and  of  preventing  those  disputes 
and  recriminations  that  would  have  been  so  injurious 
to  the  cause.  O'Connell  was  the  idol  of  the  nation. 
He  had  relinquished  for  its  service  a  lucrative  prac- 
tice at  the  Bar;  he  had  surrendered  all  hopes  of 
promotion  to  the  Bench,  to  which  he  would  otherwise 
have  undoubtedly  attained,  and  where  he  might  have 
spent  his  closing  years  in  affluence  and  in  dignified 
ease.  His  sacrifices,  his  position,  and  his  genius  ren- 
dered the  tribute  in  the  eyes  of  his  supporters  a  fitting 
reward  for  his  services,  and  a  fitting  testimonial  of  their 
affection.  How  faithfully  it  was  expended  his  death 
sufficiently  proved.  Though  he  had  been  one  of  the 
most  popular  lawyers  in  Ireland  when  he  practised  at 
the  Bar,  and  though  he  had  inherited  a  considerable 
property  from  his  uncle  in  1825,  he  died  broken  in 
fortune  as  in  spirits.  Out  of  the  princely  revenue  he 
had  commanded  he  scarcely  secured  a  competency  for 
liis  children.  He  had  received  it  from  the  people's 
love — he  spent  it  in  the  people's  cause. 

To  these  considerations  two  answers  are  given.  It 
is  said  that  O'Connell  lived  in  the  most  luxurious 
manner,  keeping  open  house,  and  exercising  the  most 
unbounded  hospitality,  and  tliat  he  also  employed  a 
large  portion  of  the  tribute  in  bringing  his  relations 
into  Parliament.  AVith  reference  to  tlic  first  charge, 
it  might  be  sufficient  to  say  tliat  a  man  whose  life  was 
spent  for  the  most  part  in  Herculean  public  labours 
might  well  be  pardoned  if,  in  the  rare  hours  of  relaxa- 
tion, he  employed  every  possible  means  of  stimulating 
and  invigorating  a  mind  jaded  by  excess  of  toil.     But 


292  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

there  is  a  fuller  answer  than  this.  O'Connell  was  the 
leader  of  a  great  agitation,  lie  had  formed  a  system 
of  government  which  he  designed  to  exhibit  as  eclipsing 
the  recognised  government  of  Ireland.  He  was  the 
centre  of  a  vast  movement  which  radiated  over  three 
provinces.  For  a  man  occupying  such  a  position, 
keeping  up  intimate  relations  with  so  many  politicians, 
and  directing  such  various  operations,  great  hospitality 
was  absolutely  necessary.  No  one  ascribes  the  hospi- 
tality of  the  JPrime  ISIinister,  or  of  any  other  political 
leader,  to  a  spirit  of  self-indulgence.  It  is  simply  the 
necessity  of  their  position.  And  with  reference  to  the 
elevation  of  his  relatives  to  Parliament,  while  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  it  was  gratifying  to  his  feelings, 
it  is  by  no  means  clear  that  it  was  injurious  to  his 
cause.  His  grand  object,  as  a  Parliamentary  leader, 
compared  witli  wliich  every  other  became  insignificant, 
was  to  inspire  his  party  with  perfect  unanimity.  In 
no  conceivable  way  could  he  more  fully  effect  that 
object  than  by  bringing  into  Parliament  men  who 
were  personally  attached  to  himself.  His  followers 
were  in  general  not  very  eminent  or  very  high-minded 
men,  but  it  would  be  difficult  to  show  any  instance  in 
which,  by  procuring  the  election  of  a  relative,  he  ex- 
cluded a  man  of  real  ability. 

Tlie  career  of  O'Connell,  during  the  Repeal  move- 
ment, divides  itself  into  two  distinct  parts — his  Parlia- 
mentary life  and  his  agitation  in  Ireland.  He  readily 
perceived  that  to  bring  the  Kepeal  question  at  once 
into  Parliament  would  be  extremely  unwise.  Parlia- 
ment is,  in  the  first  instance,  always  almost  unanimous 
in  opposing  any  radical  change.  It  is  only  when  the 
public  opinion  has  been  thoroughly  gained,  when  the 
evils  of  resistance  arc  shown  to  be  greater  than  those 
which  can  flow  from  covicr ssion,  and  when  tlie  question 


KEPEAL    AGITATION.  293 

has  assumed  an  overwhelming  magnitude,  that  the 
Parliamentary  tide  turns.  Its  change  is  then  often 
"both  sudden  and  complete.  O'Connell,  perceiving 
this,  determined  to  abstain  from  discussing  the  subject 
in  Parliament,  and  resisted  very  resolutely  the  taunts 
by  which  the  English  meiabc^rs  endeavoured  to  urge 
him  to  a  division ;  but  a  ;  arty  in  Ireland,  represented 
by  Fcargus  O'Connor  an'l  the  'Freeman's  Journal,' 
argued  so  vehemently  for  a  Parliamentary  discussion 
that  in  1834  he  was  at  length  compelled  to  yield, 
Tlio  result,  as  might  have  been  easily  anticipated,  was 
an  utter  failure.  Only  one  English  member  voted  for 
Ivopcal,  and  the  majority  against  it  amounted  to  nearly 
500.  The  division  discouraged  him  greatly,  and 
2:)erhaps  somewhat  damped  the  ardour  of  the  move- 
ment. 

The  real  importance  however  of  the  Repeal  move- 
ment was  shown  outside  the  walls  of  Parliament,  and 
after  the  substitution  of  >Sir  K.  Peel  for  Lord  Melbourne 
as  Prime  Minister.  Sir  R.  Peel,  though  one  of  the 
least  fanatical,  had  been  one  of  the  most  formidable 
adversaries  of  the  Catholic  claims.  When  Secretary 
for  Ireland,  his  eulogies  of  the  Orangemen  and  his 
exclusive  promotion  of  anti-Catholics  had  earned  for 
him  the  nickname  of  '  Orange  Peel,'  and  he  and 
O'Connell  always  regarded  one  anotlier  with  intense 
enmity,  both  personal  and  political.  He  now  declared 
tliat  there  was  '  no  influence,  no  power,  no  authority 
wliich  the  prerogative  of  the  Crown  and  the  existing* 
laws  gave  the  Government,  that  should  not  be  ex- 
ercised for  the  purpose  of  maintaining  the  Union.' 
The  Chancellor  Sugden  dismissed  from  the  magis- 
tracy O'Connell  and  some  other  conspicuous  Re- 
pealers, and  it  was  clearly  understood  that  no  one 
who   held   the  obnoxious   opinions  had  the  slightest 


294  DANIEL    O'CONNELL. 

chance  of  obtaining  any  office  from  the  Grovern- 
ment  or  any  recognition  of  his  talents  at  the  Bar. 
Some  young  lawyers  of  promise  selected  this  time  for 
joining  the  movement,  and  the  people,  whose  con- 
fidence in  their  leader  was  boundless,  accepted  the 
defiance  with  joyful  alacrity.  Ireland  was  indeed  now 
fully  prepared  for  the  contest.  There  was  no  hesita- 
tion, no  eclecticism  manifest  in  any  party.  The  lines 
of  demarcation  were  clearly  drawn.  Those  vacillating 
and  equivocal  characters  wlio  were  compared  by 
O'Connell  to  the  monsters  in  the  '  Arabian  Nights ' 
with  green  backs  and  orange  tails  had  nearly  all  dis- 
appeared. The  organisation  of  the  Kcpealcrs  had  been 
elaborated  almost  to  perfection,  and  had  attained  its 
fidl  dimensions.  The  Kepeal  Society  consisted  of  three 
classes — the  volunteers  Avho  subscribed  or  collected 
10^.  a  year,  the  members  wlio  subscribed  1/.,  the  asso- 
ciates -who  subscribed  Is.  The  rents  were  collected  by 
the  instrumentality  of  the  clergy.  The  unity  of  the 
organisation  was  maintained  by  Repeal  wardens,  under 
the  direction  of  O'Connell,  who  presided  over  assigned 
districts.  The  exertions  of  the  society  were  directed 
to  the  extension  of  Kepeal  influence  at  the  elections, 
to  the  preparation  of  petitions,  and  to  the  assemblage 
of  monster  meetings. 

O'Connell,  after  a  time,  devoted  himself  almost 
exclusively  to  the  agitation  in  Ireland,  and  in  1843, 
the  year  of  the  monster  meetings,  he  abstained  alto- 
gether from  Parliamentary  duties.  During  this  year 
he  occupied  perhaps  the  pinnacle  of  his  glory.  There 
are  three  great  instances  on  record  of  politicians,  dis- 
couraged by  overwhelming  majorities,  seceding  from 
Parliament.  G  rattan  gave  up  his  seat  and  became 
utterly  powerless  in  the  country.  Fox  retired  from 
the    debate,  though   retaining   his   seat,   and   he  too 


MONSTER   MEETINGS.  295 

became  for  a  time  little  more  than  a  cipher.  O'Con- 
nell  followed  the  example  of  Fox,  but  he  drew  with 
iiim  the  attention  of  Europe.  In  no  previous  portion 
of  his  career,  not  even  when  he  had  gained  eman- 
cipation from  the  humbled  Ministry  of  Wellington, 
did  he  attract  greater  attention  or  admiration.  Who- 
ever turns  over  the  magazines  or  newspapers  of  the 
period  will  easily  perceive  how  grandly  his  figure 
dominated  in  politicks,  how  completely  be  had  dispelled 
the  indifference  that  had  so  long  prevailed  on  Irish 
questions,  how  clearly  his  agitation  stands  forth  as  the 
great  fact  of  the  time. 

It  would  be  difficult,  indeed,  to   conceive  a  more 
imposing  demonstration  of  public   opinion  than  was 
furnished    by   those  vast  assemblies  wliich  were  held 
in    every   Catholic   county,   and   attended   by  almost 
every   adult   male.      They  usually   took    place   upon 
Sunday  morning,  in  the  open  air,  upon  some  hillside.^  At 
daybreak  the  mighty  throng  might  be  seen,  broken  into 
detached  groups  and  kneeling  on  the  greensward  around 
their  priests,  while  the  incense  rose  from  a  hundred 
rude  altars,  and  the  solemn  music  of  the  Mass  floated 
upon  the  gale,  and  seemed  to  impart  a  consecration  to 
the  cause.    0*Connell  stood  upon  a  platform,  surrounded 
by  the  ecclesiastical  dignitaries  and  by  the  more  dis- 
tinguished of  his  followers.     Before  him  that  immense 
assembly  was  ranged  without  disorder,  or  tumult,  or 
difficulty ;  organised  witli  the  most  perfect  skill,  and 
inspired  with  the  most  unanimous  enthusiasm.     There 
is,  perhaps,  no  more  impressive  spectacle  than  such  an 
assembly,  pervaded  by  such  a  spirit,  and  moving  under 
the  control  of  a  single  mind.     The  silence  that  pre- 
vailed through  its  whole  extent  during  some  portiong 
of  his  address;   the  concordant  cheer  bursting   from 
tens  of  thousands  of  voices ;  the  rapid  transitions  of 


296 

feeling  as  the  great  magician  struck  alternately  each 
chord  of  passion,  and  as  tlie  power  of  sympathy,  acting 
and  reacting  by  the  well-known  law,  intensified  the 
prevailing  feeling,  were  sufficient  to  carry  away  the 
most  callous,  and  to  influence  the  most  prejudiced  ; 
^he  critic,  in  the  contagious  enthusiasm,  almost  forgot 
liis  art,  and  men  of  very  calm  and  disciplined  intel- 
lects experienced  emotions  the  most  stately  eloquence 
of  the  senate  had  failed  to  produce.^ 

Tlie  greatest  of  all  tliese  meetings,  perhaps  the 
grandest  display  of  the  kind  that  has  ever  taken  place, 
was  held  around  the  Hill  of  Tarah.  According  to  very 
moderate  computations,  about  a  quarter  of  a  million 
were  assembled  there  to  attest  their  sympatliy  with  the 
movement.  The  spot  was  well  cliosen  for  the  purpose. 
Tarah  of  the  Kings,  tlie  seat  of  the  ancient  royalty  of 
tj-eland,  lias  ever  been  regarded  by  tlie  Iri:>h  people  with 

'  The  fullowing  is  Bulwer's  description  of  the  scene  : 

Once  to  my  sight  the  giant  tlius  was  given, 

"Walled  by  wide  air  and  roofed  by  boundless  houren  : 

l^eneath  his  feet  the  human  ocean  lay, 

And  wave  on  "wave  flowed  into  space  away. 

I\[etliought  no  clarion  could  have  sent  its  sound 

Ken  to  the  centre  of  the  hosts  aronnd  ; 

And,  as  I  thought,  rose  the  sonorous  swell. 

As  from  some  church-tower  swings  the  silvorj-  bell 

Aloft  and  clear  from  airy  tide  to  tide 

It  glided  easy,  as  a  bird  may  glide. 

To  the  last  verge  of  that  vast  audience  sent, 

It  played  with  each  wild  passion  as  it  went : 

Now  stirred  the  uproar — now  the  murmurs  stilled. 

And  sobs  or  laughter  answered  as  it  willed. 

Tlien  did  I  know  what  spells  of  infinite  choice 

To  rouse  or  lull  has  the  sweet  human  voice. 

Thon  did  I  learn  to  seize  the  sudden  clue 

To  the  gmnd  troublous  life  antique — to  ricw 

Under  the  rock-stand  of  Demosthenes 

Unstable  Athens  lieave  her  noisy  seas. — St.  Sicj)hcHS. 


MONSTER   MEETINGS.  297 

sometLing  of  a  superstitious  awe.  The  vague  legends 
that  cluster  around  it,  the  poetry  that  has  consecrated 
its  past,  and  the  massive  relics  of  its  ancient  greatness 
that  have  been  from  time  to  time  discovered,  have 
invested  it  witli  an  ineffable  and  a  most  fascinat- 
ing grandeur.  It  was  on  this  spot  that  O'Connell, 
standing  by  the  stone  where  the  Kings  of  Ireland 
were  once  crowned,  sketched  the  coming  glories  of 
his  country.  Beneath  him,  like  a  mighty  sea,  extended 
the  throng  of  listeners.  They  were  so  numerous  that 
thousands  were  unable  to  catch  the  faintest  echo 
of  the  voice  they  loved  so  well ;  yet  all  remained 
passive,  tranquil,  and  decorous.  In  no  instance  did 
these  meetings  degenerate  into  mobs.  They  were 
assembled,  and  tliey  were  dispersed,  without  disorder 
or  tumult ;  tliey  were  disgraced  by  no  drunkenness,  by 
no  crime,  by  no  excess.  "When  the  Government,  in 
the  State  trials,  applied  the  most  searching  scrutiny, 
they  could  discover  nothing  worse  than  tliat  on  one 
occasion  the  retiring  crowd  trampled  down  the  stall  of 
an  old  woman  who  sold  gingerbread. 

This  absence  of  disorder  was  partly  owing  to  the 
influence  of  O'Connell,  and  partly  to  that  of  Father 
]\ratliew.  The  extraordinary  career  of  that  wonderful 
man  was  at  tliis  time  at  its  height,  and  Teetotalism 
was  nearly  as  popular  as  Repeal.  The  two  movements 
mutually  assisted  one  another,  and  advanced  together. 
TJie  splendid  success  of  Father  Mathew  was  probably 
owing  in  a  great  measure  to  the  fact  that  O'Connell 
had  strung  the  minds  of  the  people  to  a  pitch  of 
almost  heroic  enthusiasm ;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
O'Connell  declared  that  he  would  never  have  ventured 
to  hold  the  monster  meetings  were  it  not  that  he  liad 
the  Teetotallers  '  for  his  policemen.'  Tliere  was  scarcely 
a  Catholic  county  where  these  meetings  were  not  held, 


298  DANIEL    O'CONNELL. 

and  those  who  attended  them  have  been  reckoned 
by  millions. 

In  the  same  year  a  very  remarkable  evidence  was 
furnished  of  the  extent  to  which  the  Eepeal  opinions 
were  held  by  the  intellect  of  the  country  in  the  creation 
of  tlie  '  Nation  '  newspaper.  I  know  few  more  melan- 
choly spectacies — no  more  mournful  illustration  of  the 
declension  of  the  national  party  in  Ireland  than  is 
furnished  by  the  contrast  between  the  present  of  that 
paper  and  its  past.  What  it  is  now  it  is  needless  to 
say.  AVhat  it  was  when  Gavan  Duffey  edited  it — when 
Davis,  Macarthy,  and  all  their  brilliant  companions 
contributed  to  it,  and  when  its  columns  maintained 
W'ith  unqualified  zeal  the  cause  of  liberty  and  nationality 
in  every  land,  Irishmen  can  never  forget. 

And  over  all  this  vast  movement  O'Connell  at  this 
time  reigned  supreme.  There  was  no  rival  to  his 
supremac}' — there  was  no  restriction  to  his  authority. 
He  played  wdth  the  fierce  enthusiasm  he  had  aroused 
with  the  negligent  ease  of  a  master ;  he  gOA'crned  the 
complicated  organisation  he  had  created  with  a  sagacity 
that  never  failed.  He  had  made  himself  the  focus  of 
the  attention  of  other  lands,  and  the  centre  around 
which  the  rising  intellect  of  his  OAvn  revolved.  He  had 
transformed  the  whole  social  system  of  Ireland  ;  almost 
reversed  the  relative  positions  of  Protestants  and  Eoman 
Catholics ;  remodelled  by  liis  influence  the  representa- 
tive, the  ecclesiastical,  the  educational  institutions, 
and  created  a  public  opinion  that  surpassed  the  wildest 
dreams  of  his  predecessors.  Can  w^e  wonder  at  tlie 
proud  exultation  with  which  he  exclaimed,  '  Grrattan 
sat  by  tlie  cradle  of  his  country,  and  followed  her 
hearse:  it  was  left  for  me  to  sound  the  resurrection 
trumpet,  and  to  sliow  that  she  was  not  dead,  but 
^^leepiug '  ? 


NOT    A   MERE   DEMAGOGUE.  299 

Among  the  popular  methods  of  depreciating  the 
intellect  of  O'Connell,  one  of  the  principal  has  been  to 
represent  him  simply  as  a  member  of  a  very  numerous 
and  a  very  much  despised  class,  who  are  known  by  i^e 
name  of  demagogues.  Now,  if  by  a  demagogue  is 
understood  a  man  who  is  merely  an  adept  in  mob- 
oratory,  whose  life  is  spent  in  pandering  to  the  passions 
of  the  populace,  in  following  and  in  interpreting  their 
follies,  and  in  advocating  the  extreme  opinions  they 
delight  in,  it  is  quite  true  that  such  a  character  is  a 
contemptible  one,  but  equally  true  that  it  does  not 
apply  to  O'Connell.  The  truth  is,  that  the  position  of 
O'Connell,  so  far  from  being  a  common  one,  is  abso- 
lutely unique  in  history.  There  have  been  many 
greater  men,  but  there  is  no  one  with  whom  he  com- 
ivdves  disadvantageously,  for  he  stands  alone  in  his 
.s])here.  AVe  may  search  in  vain  through  the  records 
of  the  jDast  for  any  man  who,  without  the  effusion  of  a 
drop  of  blood,  or  the  advantages  of  office  or  rank, 
succeeded  in  governing  a  people  so  absolutely  and  so 
long,  and  in  creating  so  entirely  the  elements  of  his 
power.  A  king  without  rebellion,  with  his  tribute, 
Jiis  government,  and  his  deputies,  he  at  once  evaded 
the  meshes  of  the  law  and  restrained  the  passions  of 
the  people.  He  possessed  to  the  highest  degree  tlie 
eloquence  and  the  adroitness  of  a  demagogue,  but  lie 
possessed  also  all  the  sagacity  of  a  statesman  and  not 
a  little  of  the  independence  of  a  patriot.  He  yielded 
frequently  to  the  wishes  of  the  people  and  to  the 
passions  around  him,  but  on  points  which  he  deemed 
important  he  was  quite  capable  of  resisting  them. 
He  believed  the  poor-laws  to  bo  erroneous  in  their 
principle  and  demoralising  in  tlieir  action,  and  he 
opposed  them  on  the  most  unpopular  grounds, 
though    Dr.  Doyle,   the  ablest  and    most   popular   of 


300  DANIEL  0  co??^^:LL. 

the  Eoman  Catholic  prelates,  had  come  forward  io 
advocate  them.  He  rejected  without  hesitation  the 
proffered  alliance  of  the  Chartists,  though  Englishmen 
of  almost  every  other  class  were  inveighing  against 
him.  He  was  extremely  anxious  to  obtain  the  sympathy 
and  support  of  American  public  opinion,  but  he  did 
not  liesitate  mortally  to  offend  a  large  section  of  the 
American  people  by  the  zeal  with  which  he  threw 
himself  into  the  cause  of  negro  emancipation,  and  by 
his  fiery  denunciations  of  slavery.  He  strongly  cen- 
sured the  existing  system  of  insecure  tenancies,  and 
anticipated  very  accurately  the  Bill  which  has  recently 
passed,  saying,  on  one  occasion,  that  '  nothing  will  do 
but  giving  some  kind  of  fixity  of  tenure  to  the  occupier, 
and  especially  an  absolute  right  of  recompense  for  all 
substantial  improvements.'  But,  although  he  often 
used  very  violent  and  very  unjustifiable  language 
towards  individual  landlords,  he  never  encouraged 
those  socialistic  notions  about  land  which  since  his 
death  have  been  so  prevalent;  and  he  never  forgave 
Arthur  O'Connor  for  having,  as  he  lieard,  a  plan  for 
the  ecpial  division  of  land.*  He  regarded  strikes  as  one 
of  the  curses  of  the  country,  and  in  1838,  when  they 
were  very  prevalent  in  Ireland,  and  were  supported  by 
numbers  of  his  followers,  he  was  among  the  most  pro- 
minent of  those  who  denounced  them.  On  this  occa- 
sion he  seriously  imperilled  his  influence.  He  was 
scan^ely  able  to  obtain  a  hearing  at  a  meeting  he 
attended.  He  was  liooted  through  the  streets  of 
Dublin,  but  he  never  shrank  from  warning  the  people 
against  those  combinations,  and  lie  succeeded  for  a  time 
in  putting  them  down  in  Ireland. 

'  See  O'Neil  D.uint's  '  rorson:il   rv(  callections  of  OTonnoll,' vol.  i, 
p.  60;  vol.  ii.  p.  232. 


niS   LOVE   OF   PEACE.  301 

But  the  noblest  instance  of  Lis  moderation  is  fur- 
nished by  his  constant  denunciations  of  rebellion.  An 
orator  who  sought  only  for  popularity  in  addressing  so 
bellicose  a  people  as  the  Irish  would  have  dwelt  con- 
stantly on  the  verge  of  treason,  and  have  continually 
dilated  upon  the  glories  of  the  battle-field.  O'Con- 
ncll,  on  the  other  hand,  uniformly  warned  the  people 
against  appealing  to  arms.  He  exhausted  all  his  elo- 
quence in  contrasting  the  advantages  of  constitutional 
agitation  with  the  horrors  of  war,  and  exhibited  at  all 
times,  both  in  public  and  in  private  conversations,  an 
almost  Quaker  detestation  of  force.  Perhaps  no  higher 
tribute  has  ever  been  paid  him  than  that  of  JMr.  Mit- 
chell, who  declared  that,  next  to  the  British  Govern- 
ment, he  regarded  O'Connell  as  the  greatest  enemy  of 
Ireland  ;  for  it  was  altogether  owing  to  his  eloquence 
and  to  his  priucijDles  that  the  Irish  people  could  not  be 
induced  to  follow  the  revolutionary  movement  of  1848. 
Ho  infused  into  them  a  touching  faith  in  the  power 
of  peaceful  agitation,  which  unhappily  did  not  survive 
liis  defeat.  He  proclaimed  himself  the  first  apostle 
of  that  sect  whose  first  doctrine  was,  that  no  political 
cliange  was  worth  shedding  a  drop  of  blood,  and  tliat 
all  miglit  be  attained  by  moral  force  ;  and  he  con- 
fidently looked  forward  to  the  time  when  the  might  of 
public  opinion  would  prove  invariably  triumphant  in 
political  struggles.  As  one  of  the  poets  of  tlie  move- 
ment wrote : 

"Wlion  the  Lonl  created  tlie  earth  and  the  sc;v, 

The  stiirs,  and  the  glorious  sun, 
The  Godhead  {-polcy  and  the  universe  -woke, 

And  tlio  mighty  work  Mas  done ! 
Let  a  word  be  Hung  from  the  orator's  tongue. 

Or  a  drop  from  the  fearless  pen, 
And  the  cliains  accurst  asunder  burst 

That  fettered  the  minds  of  men. 


302  DANIEL    O'CONNELL. 

Oil!  these  are  the  arms  with  -vvhich  we  fight, 

The  swords  in  which  we  truf>t, 
Which  no  tyrant  hand  shall  dare  to  brand, 

AVhich  time  cannot  stain  or  rust. 
When  these  we  bore  we  triumphed  before, 

AVith  these  we'll  triumph  again, 
And  the  world  shall  saj  no  power  can  stay 

The  voice  or  the  fearless  pen.' 

The  system  of  gigantic,  organised  agitation  for  poli- 
tical ends  which  he  devised  was  a  discovery  in  politics, 
and  the  example  was  speedily  followed  in  England,  and 
tended  very  powerfully  to  discredit  the  conspiracies 
and  riots  to  which  the  imrepresented  classes  had  long 
been  prone.  The  Corn-Law  League,  which  obtained 
for  England  the  blessing  of  free  trade,  was  in  a  great 
degree  an  imitation  of  the  Catholic  Association  of 
O'Connell. 

That  the  outrageous  language  he  sometimes  em- 
ployed, his  habitual  use  of  the  term  Saxon  instead  of 
Englishman,  and  his  frequent  recurrence  to  tlie  worst 
episodes  of  the  past  history  of  Ireland  contributed 
much  to  separate  the  two  nations  is  undoubted ;  but  it 
must  be  added  that,  wliile  his  influence  lasted,  there 
was  none  of  that  malignant  type  of  disloyalty  which 
has  since  then  been  so  common.  The  people  were 
anti-English  because  of  the  Union  or  the  Protestant 
ascendency,  but  they  always  retained  a  kind  of  re- 
versionary loyalty,  and  looked  forward,  when  their 
grievances  were  redressed,  to  a  cordial  union  with 
England.  It  must  be  added,  too,  that  O'Connell 
always  drew  a  broad  line  of  distinction  between  the 

*  Macarthy.     Contrast  the  lines  of  the  Young  Ireland  poet  Davis  : 

The  tribune's  tongue  or  poet's  pen 

May  sow  the  seed  in  prostrate  men, 
But  'tis  the  soldier's  sword  alone 

Can  rcao  the  harvest  when  'tis  grown. 


niS   RELIGIOUS   TOLEBANCE.  303 

Sovereign  and  her  ^Ministers,  and  there  was  probably 
no  period  of  his  agitation  in  which  the  Queen  would 
not  have  been  received  with  enthusiasm  in   Ireland. 
If  the  measures  wliich    he   adopted  were   often  very 
culpable,  the  great  end  of  liis  politics  ^vill  now  be  very 
generally  admitted  to  liave  been  good.     His  advocacy 
of  universal  suffrage,  liis  crusade  against  the  House  of 
Lords,  his  ferocious  denunciations  of  the  upper  classes 
of  his  fellow-countrymen,  perhaps  even  his  agitation 
for  Repeal,  were  all  means  to  an  end— that  end  being 
the  elevation  of  the  Catliolics  from  a  pariah  class  into 
a  position  of  equality  with   the   Protestants.      That 
policy  has  since  been  fully  carried  out.     No  one  will 
now  defend  tlie   old    system  of  tithes,  and  few  will 
(piestion    that    the    Appropriation    Clause    was    just. 
The  Churcli  policy,  which  was  thought  so  extravagant 
in  1833,  has  been  carried  out  in  1869  with  a  severity 
which  O'Connell  never  advocated,  and  the  security  of 
tenure  which  O'Connell  claimed  for  the  Irish  tenant 
has  been  amply  provided  by  the  Land  Bill  of  1870. 

Xor  can  O'Connell  be  justly  regarded  as  the  mere 
tool  of  the  clergy.  It  is  true  that  he  first  brouglit 
them  into  the  political  arena  and  governed  by  their 
means,  but  he  was  invariably  the  director  of  their 
policy.  He  refused  emphatically  to  submit  to  be 
dictated  to  by  his  spiritual  advisers.  '  We  are  Roman 
Catholics,'  lie  once  said,  '  but  not  servants  of  Rome;' 
and  he  fully  echoed  the  words  of  his  secretary,  '  As 
much  theology  as  you  please  from  Rome,  but  no  poli- 
tics.' Though  he  was  passionately  attached  to  his 
ovm  religion,''and  on  most  subjects  very  little  apt  to 
restrain  his  invective,  it  would  be  difficult  or  im- 
possible to  find  a  single  instance  in  which  he  used 
offensive  language  against  Protestants  as  such.  Though 
perpetually    confronted    witli    the    grossest    Puritan 


304  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

bigotry,  he  exhibited  himself  a  steady  and  large- 
minded  tolerance  for  every  form  of  religious  belief, 
that  raised  him  immeasurably  above  his  Protestant 
adversaries.  '  In  plain  truth,'  he  said,  in  language 
which  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  expressed  his 
deepest  conviction,  'every  religion  is  good  —  every 
religion  is  true  to  him  who  in  his  due  caution  and 
conscience  believes  it.  There  is  but  one  bad  religion, 
that  of  a  man  who  professes  a  faith  which  he  does  not 
believe  ;  but  the  good  religion  may  be,  and  often  is, 
corru2)ted  by  the  wretched  and  wicked  prejudices 
which  admit  a  difference  of  opinion  as  a  cause  of 
hatred.'  He  continually  laboured  in  the  spirit  of 
G rattan  and  O'Lcary  to  allay  the  religious  discord  of 
his  countrymen,  accepted  cordially  every  overture 
made  to  him  by  Protestants,  advocated  the  cause  of 
religious  liberty  in  every  quarter,  and  alone,  of  all 
prominent  Pomaii  Catholics,  succeeded  in  making 
himself  through  his  whole  life  the  champion  of  the 
Church,  and  at  the  same  time  a  consistent  leader  of 
the  most  advanced  Liberal  party.  It  is  this  aspect 
of  his  career  which  seems  to  have  most  struck  Conti- 
nental writers,  and  to  have  made  him  '  a  representative 
man '  in  liis  Church. 

The  struirj>le  a^j^ainst  the  Church  of  Pome  in  the 
present  day  is  not  strictly  theological.  Its  real 
adversary  is  no  longer  the  Protestant  divine,  nor.  are 
tlie  weapons  of  the  controversy  those  of  dogmatic 
polemics.  A  new  method  and  severity  of  historical 
criticism,  by  sapping  the  authority  of  the  Church,  and 
a  series  of  momentous  scientific  discoveries,  Iw 
familiarising  men  with  nnti-theological  conceptions  of 
the  nature  and  government  of  the  universe,  are  gra- 
dually loosening  its  hold  upon  the  minds  of  men, 
while  at  the   same  time    its   power   is  immeasurably 


I!IS   SERVICES   TO    CATHOLICISM.  305 

diminished  by  a  great  political  change.  The  theo- 
logical doctrine  of  the  Divine  right  of  kings  was  the 
basis  of  the  government  of  Catholic  Europe,  but  since 
the  French  Kevolution  this  theological  basis  has  been 
generally  repudiated,  the  whole  sphere  of  politics  is 
fast  passing  beyond  the  empire  of  tlie  Church,  the 
government  of  a  great  part  of  Europe  rests  upon 
principles  wliich  she  cannot  approve,  and  the  sym- 
pathies of  tlie  people  are  in  habitual  opposition  to 
those  of  the  priests.  The  great  Liberal  party  that 
ramifies  over  nearly  the  whole  of  Europe,  and  advances 
side  by  side  with  education  and  social  progress,  is  in 
open  or  disguised  antagonism  to  tlie  Church,  and,  as 
its  triumph  becomes  every  year  more  certain,  the 
priestly  power  is  waning  rapidly  in  lands  where  the 
doctrines  oC  Protestantism  are  unknown.  It  was  the 
work  of  O'Connell  to  make  tho  Liberal  party,  in 
Ireland  at  least,  synonymous  with  the  Catholic  party. 
Ey  drawing  clearly  the  distinction  between  rebellion 
which  the  Church  condemns,  and  agitation  which  it 
does  not  condemn  ;  by  advocating  in  Parliament  the 
cause  of  every  oppressed  nationality ;  by  claiming 
religious  equality  for  the  Dissenters  as  well  as  for  his 
co-religionists ;  by  allying  himself  with  the  most 
advanced  democrats ;  and,  above  all,  by  making  his 
cause  essentially  national,  he  succeeded  in  becoming 
at  once  the  greatest  Catholic  and  one  of  the  greatest 
Liberals  of  his  age.  Three  or  four  of  the  most  gifted 
intellects  of  France  were  engaged  at  the  same  time, 
though  w^ith  very  indifferent  success,  in  advocating 
this  alliance,  and  they  regarded  O'Connell  as  their 
great  model  and  representative.  On  this  ground  three 
of  the  most  eloquent  men  on  the  Continent — Mont- 
alembert,  Ventura,  and  Lacordaire — have  made  him  the 
subject  of  the  most  splendid  eulogy.     The  attempt  to 


306  DANIEL    O  CORNELL. 

make  the  Catholic  priesthood   the   represeatatives  of 
sincere  Liberalism  has,  as  might  have  been  expected, 
proved  ultimately  hopeless ;  but  if  O'Connell  did  not 
ally  his  cause  permanently  with  Liberalism  abroad,  he 
at  least  succeeded  in  identifying  it  with  Nationalism  at 
home.     He  contrived  to  place  the  Protestant  clergy  in 
direct  opposition  to  the  sympathies  of  the  people,  to 
neutralise  all  the    good    effect  of  the    Liberalism  of 
Grattan   or   Curran,  and  thus   to    raise  a  formidable 
rampart  around  his  Church.     Eeligious  doctrines  with 
great  masses  of  men  depend  very  little  for  their  ac- 
ceptance on  the  unbiassed  judgment  of  the  intellect, 
and  very  much  Tipon  the  sympatliy  and  the  esteem 
inspired  by  their    teachers,  and  a  Church  wliich  has 
sold  the   birthright  will   never   obtain   the   blessing. 
Tlie  Irish  Protestant  Church,  accepting  the  position  of 
an  English  garrison  in  an  enemy's  country,  supporting 
for  the  most  part  a  policy  of  restriction  and  disquali- 
fication, and  opposing  tlie  national  aspirations  of  the 
l^eople,  has  occupied  a  position  very  similar  to  that  of 
the  Papacy  in  Italy,  while  in  Ireland,  as  in  Poland 
and  in  Spain,  Catholicism  has  derived  an  incalculable 
force  from  being  the  sjrmbol  of  national  feeling.     It  is 
probable,  liowever,  that  this  situation  will  gradually 
be   modified.      Recent   measures    of   disestablishment 
and     disendowment,    by    depriving     the     Protestant 
Church  of  all  tlie  privileges  it  derived  from  the  State, 
have  destroyed  its  invidious  and  exceptional  position, 
and  removed  a  chief  obstacle  to  an  Irish  policy  on  the 
part  of  its  members,  while  among  the  Catholic  priests 
Ultramontanism  is  becoming  more  and  more  ascendant, 
and  their   policy  is,  in   consequence,  more  and  more 
evidently  subservient  to  foreign  dictation. 

With  the  great  qualities  of  O'Connell  there  were 
mingled  great  defects,  which  I  have  not  attempted  to 


niS   DEFECTS.  307 

conceal,  and  which  are  of  a  kind  peculiarly  repulsive 
to  a  refined  and  lofty  nature.  His  character  was 
essentially  that  of  a  Celtic  peasant.  Thou^ifh  he  was 
the  representative  of  an  old  family,  and  though  he  had 
received  a  good  education  in  France,  he  exhibited  to 
a  singular  degree  the  characteristic  faults  of  an 
uneducated  man  —  coarseness,  scurrility,  cunning,  a 
power  of  passing  on  the  slightest  occasion  from  the 
extreme  of  flattery  to  the  extreme  of  abuse,  a  looseness 
of  statement  whicli  is  not  altogether  explained  by  the 
natural  exaggeration  of  the  Celtic  mind.  Of  the 
faults  of  taste  into  which  he  could  fall,  and  the 
manner  in  which  he  could  expose  himself  to  ridicule, 
it  is  sufficient  to  say  that  in  1838  he  published  a  letter 
describing  himself  as  having,  during  a  sleepless  night, 
cried  bitterly  in  bed  because  Lord  J.  liussell  had 
refused  to  adopt  the  ballot.  The  dedication  to  the 
Queen  of  his  memoir  on  the  past  atrocities  of  English 
Grovernments  in  Ireland  is  written  in  a  strain  of 
bombast  that  w^ould  disgrace  the  pen  of  the  editor  of 
a  country  newspaper ;  and  there  are  many  things  in  his 
other  wTitings  and  in  his  speeches  which  are  equally 
puerile.  As  was  almost  inevitable  from  his  mode  of 
life,  his  faults  grew  upon  him  with  age.  Perpetually 
speaking  before  crowds  of  uneducated  men,  and  per- 
petually breathing  the  atmosphere  of  the  most  vulgar 
flattery,  his  intellect  and  character  were  alike  lowered. 
It  is  indeed  a  grave,  though  a  common  error,  to  judge 
speeches  addressed  to  an  uneducated  audience  by  the 
canons  of  a  refined  taste ;  for  a  great  orator  will  always 
adapt  his  style  to  his  audience,  and  will  know  that 
coarse  humour,  or  florid  imagery,  or  claptrap  declama- 
tion may  affect  some  classes  more  than  all  the  elo- 
quence of  Demosthenes  ;  but  when  all  due  allowance  is 
made  for  this,  it  remains  true  that  the  language  of 


308  DANIEL    O'CONNELL. 

O'Connell  lowered  the  tone  of  public  opinion  in  Ireland, 
and  the  character  of  the  nation"  in  the  eyes  of  the 
world.  He  represented,  played  upon,  and  strengthened 
some  of  the  worst  defects  of  the  Irish  nature,  and 
there  was  very  little  tliat  w\is  either  manly  or  dignified 
in  his  later  oratory.  At  the  same  time,  his  violence 
was  sometimes  almost  ungovernable.  He  often  com- 
plained with  justice  of  landlord  intimidation  as  applied 
to  voters,  but  it  would  be  difficult  or  impossible  to 
find  instances  of  more  scandalous  intimidation  than 
was  practised  by  his  followers  at  his  instigation  in 
1835;*  and  the  language  he  habitually  employed 
towards  his  opponents  gave  a  bitterness  to  political 
controversy  in  Ireland  which  it  had  never  before 
attained.  One  of  the  most  liopeful  circumstances  in 
the  present  condition  of  the  country  is  that  the  gene- 
ration is  fast  passing  away  w^hich  rose  to  manhood 
during  his  agitation.  Few  generations  of  Irishmen 
have  exhibited  so  little  real  genius.  None  lias  been  so 
profoundly  divided  by  sectarian  and  party  hatred. 

The  result  of  his  career  w^as  in  another  way  pro- 
foundly injurious  to  the  country.  The  main  object 
of  the  legislative  Union  had  been  to  withdraw  the 
Government  of  Ireland  from  the  hands  of  the  Irish 
gentry,  and  one  of  its  most  important  results  was  to 
diminish  their  influence  as  tlie  political  leaders  of  the 
people.  By  a  singular  fatality,  the  great  advocate  of 
Eepeal  continued  this  policy,  and  thus  did  more  than 
anyone  else  to  make  the  Union  a  necessity.  From  the 
beo:innin<]:  of  his  career,  when  he  crushed  the  influence 
of  the  leading  Irish  lay  Catholics  on  the  question  of 
the  Veto,  to  the  end  of  his  struggle  for  Eepeal,  he 
was  continually  employed  in  breaking  or   weakening 

'  See  tlie  'Annual  Kcgittcr,'  IS-Jo,  p.  15. 


DITISION    OF    CLASSES   HE   rROPUCED.  309 

the  landed  classes,  in  dispelling  the  feudal  reverence 
of  the  people,  and  in  making  the  priests  tlieir  political 
leaders.     In  the  case  of  individual  landlords,  indeed, 
he  often  showed  himself  anxious  to  conciliate,  and  even 
fulsome  in  his  adulation,*  but  he  destroyed  the  sym- 
pathy between  the  people  and  their  natural  leaders  ; 
and  he  threw  the  former  into  the  hands  of  men  who 
have   subordinated  all  national  to  ecclesiastical  con- 
siderations, or  into  the  hands  of  reckless,  ignorant,  and 
dishonest  adventurers.     If  the  people  and  the  possessors 
of  property  in  Ireland  were  now  cordially  united  they 
could    obtain   any   measure    of  self-government   they 
desired,  and  the  Ultramontane  policy  dictated  by  the 
priesthood,  and  the  wild  socialistic  follies  of  Fenianism, 
are  tbe  chief  obstacles  to  its  attainment.     No  truths 
can  be  more  obvious  than  that  a  cordial  union  between 
Ii-ishmen  of  all  creeds  is  the  first  condition  of  political 
progress  in  Ireland,  and  that  a  demand  for  any  measure 
of  Telf-govcrnment  must  rest  upon  the  doctrine  that 
tlie  public  opinion  of  a  country  should  determine  the 
form  of  its  government ;  but  one  section  of  the  popular 
leaders  in  Ireland  are  now  straining  every  nerve  to 
break  down  the  system  of  united  education,  which  is 
the  best  hope  for  the  future  of  their  country,  and  to 
incline  the  foreign  policy  of  the  empire  to  the  side  of 
everything  that  is  anti-Liberal  on  the  Continent,  while 
another  section  are  advocating  doctrines  subversive  of 
those  fundamental  rights  of  property  which  it  is  a  main 
end   of  all    government   to    secure,  and   a   policy   of 
rebellion    which,    if    it    could   be   realised,    could   be 
realised   only  at  the  expense  of  a  massacre   of  their 

The  reader  may  find  some  curious  instances  of  this  in  Lord  Clon- 
[•y's 'Personal  Rccollectic 
lonnell  that  *  you  may  cat 
-with  a  hogshead  of  vinegar.' 


curry-s  '  Personal  Recollections.'     It  was  a  very  characteristic  saying  of 
O'Connell  that  •  yon  may  catcli  inorc  fli.s  witli  a  spoonful  of  honey  than 


310  DANIEL  O'CONNELL. 

fellow-countrynicn.  If  at  the  present  moment  the  an- 
tagonism of  classes  and  creeds  is  stronger  in  Ireland 
than  in  any  other  country  in  Europe — if  there  is  no 
part  of  the  empire  in  which  genuine,  modest,  and 
manly  talent  is  so  little  appreciated  by  constituencies, 

-  and  in  which  the  demagogue  and  the  adventurer  can 
find  so  favourable  a  field — this  is  to  be  mainly  attri- 
buted to  the  policy  of  Pitt,  and  to  the  agitation  of 

4-0'Connell.  By  grave  faults  on  both  sides  the  natural 
ties  that  united  classes  have  been  broken,  and  until 
they  are  in  some  degree  formed  anew  there  is  never 
likely  to  be  a  consistent  and  successful  national  policy 
in  Ireland. 

I  have  dwelt  at  considerable  length  upon  the  faults 
and  merits  of  O'Connell,  for  the  position  I  would 
venture  to  assign  him  is  much  higher  tlian  that  which 
is  usually  conceded  him  in  England,  and  there  are 
few  men  who  are  estimated  more  differently  in  England 
and  on  the  Continent.  It  is  impossible  to  judge  Jus 
position  without  taking  into  account  the  place  he 
occupied  with  reference  to  the  progressive  party  in  his 
Church,  and  the  depreciatory  tone  adopted  by  his 
many  enemies  has  naturally  made  a  deep  impression 
on  the  public  mind.  There  is  also  a  constant  tendency 
— especially  among  intellectual  people — to  underrate 
those  wliose  genius  is  employed  chiefly  in  action, 
especially  when  tlie  low^er  orders  are  subjects  of  that 
action. 

If  I  wcj'e  asked  to  point  out  a  personage  in  history 
who  in  intellectual  and  moral  temperament  bore  a 
striking  resemblance  to  O'Connell,  I  should  select  one 
who  differed  from  him  in  principles  as  widely  as  any 
that  could  be  named,  and  wlio  has  played  a  far  greater 
and  far  nobler  part  in  the  affairs  of  men — I  mean 
Martin    Luther.      There    is    something    in    the   very 


COMPARED  WITH  LUTHER.  311 

appearance  of  these  men  exhibiting  the  same  nature— 
a  nature  of  indomitable  strength,  genial  rather  than 
refined,  massive  and  precious,   but  somewhat  coarse- 
grained.    In  each,  character  and  intellect  so  happily 
harmonised  that  it  were  hard  to  say  how  much  their 
success  was  due  to   force  of  will,  and  how  much  to 
force  of  mind.     In  each  was  the  same  instinctive  tact 
in  governing  great  masses  of  men,  the  same  calculated 
audacity,  the  same  intuitive  perception  of  opportunities, 
the  same  art  in  inspiring  and  in  retaining  confidence. 
Each   displayed   an   eloquence    of    the   most   popular 
character,  nervous,  pointed,  but   incorrect;    thrilling 
and.fascinating,  by  the  glow  of  feeling  that  pervaded 
it;    repelling   and    irritating,  by  the   coarseness,   the 
vituperation,  the  vulgarity  into  which  it  degenerated. 
Each  was  associated  with  men  of  purer  intellectuality 
and  more  heroic  enthusiasm,  yet  each,  if  measured  by 
his  achievements,  towers  above  all  his  associates.  Neither 
can  be  judged  fairly  by  a  microscopic  and  a  detailed 
criticism.   "^It  is  easy  to  detect  acts   that   cannot  be 
justified,  language  that  can  scarcely  be  palliated,  in- 
consistencies that  it  is  difticult  to  explain.   But,  though 
their  opponents  will  never  be  at  a  loss  for  subject- 
matter  for  their  attacks,  though  their   admirers  will 
always  find  much  that  they  must  deeply  deplore,  and 
though  the  sentimentalist  will  turn  with  disgust  from 
men  in  whose  temperaments  the  gi'osser  elements  so 
largely  mingled,  yet  the  stamp  of  true  genius  is  upon 
botli,  and   the   aureole   that   marks   those   who   have 
laboured  faithfully  for  mankind  will  ever  circle  their 
memories.     The   magnitude   and   the   unity   of  their 
lives  become   only  visible  when  distance  has  enabled 
the  eye  to  discover  their  full  proportions,  and  when 
experience  has  shown  how  miserable  were  the  efforts  of 
their  successors  to  wield  their  sceptres.     Nay,  in  the 


312  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

very  inequalities  of  their  tempers  there  is  much  to 
attract  sympathy.  Luther,  hurling-  his  unmeasured 
invective  against  some  royal  opponent,  and  then  pour- 
ing out  a  strain  of  the  gentlest  tenderness  over  his 
child — O'Connell,  listening  with  calm  complacency  to 
the  crowd  of  orators  who  *  were  advertising '  him  by 
their  denunciations,  yet  galled  to  the  quick  by  the 
sarcasm  of  an  old  friend — present  a  resemblance  as 
pleasing  as  it  is  striking.  Both  were  men  of  powerful 
intellects  and  of  warm  liearts,  and  both,  with  great 
though  unequal  faults,  laboured  with  a  firm  faith  to 
realise  objects  which  they  believed  to  be  good.^ 

The  Government  was  extremely  alarmed  at  the 
success  of  the  monster  meetings,  and  they  at  length 
determined  by  a  bold  measure  to  crush  the  agitation. 
A  meeting  had  been  advertised  for  Sunday,  October  3, 
1843,  to  be  held  at  Clontarf.  It  would  ]iave  been  pro- 
bably one  of  the  very  greatest  of  the  series,  for  Clon- 
tarf is  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  Dublin.  The 
meeting  had  been  announced  about  a  fortnight  before. 
The  Government  took  no  notice  of  it  till  the  afternoon 
of  tlie  2nd,  when  the  roads  were  thronged  with  the 
excited  populace,  who  had  come  from  a  distance  to 
attend  it,  and  a  proclamation  was  then  issued  forbidding- 
it.  It  is  said  that  the  cannon  of  '  the  Pigeon-house ' 
were  actually  turned  upon  Clontarf.  The  natural  con- 
sequence of  this  proceeding  of  the  Grovernment  of  Sir 
11.  Peel  would  have  been  a  breach  of  the  peace  and 
a  massacre  more  sanguinary  than  that  of  Manchester, 
and  this  would  almost  certainly  have  taken  place  but 

*  '  Oh  for  a  great  man,'  said  Coleridge,  '  but  one  really  great  man, 
who  could  feel  the  weight  and  the  power  of  a  principle,  and  unflinch- 
ingly put  it  into  act !  See  how  triumphant  in  debate  and  action 
O'Connell  is.  Why  ?  Because  he  asserts  a  broad  principle,  and  acts 
up  to,  rests  all  his  body  on  ir,  and  has  faith  in  it.' — Tuble  Talk, 


HIS  TRIAL.  313 

for  the  extraordinary  promptitude  of  O'Connell.  He 
at  once  despatched  messengers  in  all  directions  to 
apprise  the  people,  and  by  exerting  all  his  wonderful 
influence  induced  them  peaceably  to  disperse. 

The  Government  prosecution  followed  close  on  the 
proclamation.  It  was  a  charge  of  conspiracy,  or,  in 
other  words,  of  the  employment  of  seditious  language, 
against  O'Connell,  his  son,  and  five  of  his  principal 
followers.  The  trial  was  extremely  protracted  ;  but  its 
monotony  was  relieved  by  much  brilliant  oratory,  ])y  a 
great  deal  of  very  curious  cross-examination,  and  by 
an  amusing  episode  occasioned  by  the  Attorney-General, 
who  sent  a  challenge  to  one  of  the  opposing  counsel, 
which  that  gentleman  submitted  to  the  Bench.  Tho 
two  most  eloquent  speeches  delivered  were  beyond  all 
(piestion  those  of  Shell  and  Mr.  Whiteside.  A  great 
luimber  of  charges  have  l)een  brought  against  this  trial 
which  have  elicited  much  controversy.  It  is  sufficient  to 
state  tlie  facts  that  are  admitted.  An  error,  which  at 
least  one  Irish  judge  believed  not  to  have  been  unin- 
tentional, was  made  in  the  panel  of  the  jury,  and  by 
til  is  error  more  than  twenty  Catholics  were  excluded 
irv)]n  tlie  juror  list.  Of  the  Catholics  whose  names 
v^^ere  called  all  were  objected  to  by  the  Government 
prosecutor,  and  accordingly  there  was  not  a  single 
Koman  Catholic  on  the  jury  which  tried  the  greatest 
Catholic  of  his  age  in  the  metropolis  of  an  essenti- 
ally Catholic  coinitry,  and  at  a  time  when  sectarian 
animosity  was  at  its  height.  A.fter  a  charge  from  the 
Chief  Justice  which  JMacaulay  afterwards  compared  to 
the  displays  of  judicial  partisanship  in  the  State  trials 
of  Charles  II.,  O'Connell  was  found  guilty,  and  con- 
demned to  two  years'  imprisonment,  together  with 
a  fine — a  sentence  apainst  which  he  appealed  to  the 
Jjords. 


314  DANIEL   O'CONNELL, 

Some  months  elapsed  before  the  appeal  could  be 
heard,  and  during  the  earlier  part  of  that  time  O'Connell 
was  in  great,  thougli,  as  it  proved,  needless  alarm,  lest 
the  people  should  have  broken  into  open  rebellion. 
He  despatched  from  prison  the  most  emphatic  addresses, 
exhorting  them  to  tranquillit}^  and  he  soon  found  that 
they  were  quite  willing  to  respond  to  his  appeal.  Their 
reception  of  tlie  Government  prosecution  was  very 
striking.  Tliey  remained  perfectly  tranquil ;  but  the 
rent,  which  in  the  fourteen  weeks  before  the  trial  had 
been  6,G79/.,  rose  in  the  fourteen  weeks  that  followed 
it  to  25,712/.     In  the  first  week  it  was  nearly  2,G00/. 

At  the  beginning  of  tlic  trial,  Mr.  Smith-  OlBrien 
oave  for  the  first  time  his  formal  adliesion  to  the 
movement,  and,  during  the  imprisonment  of  O'Connell, 
the  leadership  of  the  party  devolved  upon  him. 
Though  very  deficient,  both  in  oratorical  abilities  and 
in  judgment,  he  o])tained  great  weight  with  the  peo]>le 
from  the  charm  that  ever  liangs  around  a  chivalrous 
and  polished  gentleman,  and  frc>m  tlie  transparent 
j)in"it3^  of  a  patriotism  on  which  suspicion  has  never 
rested;  and  he  was  also  a  skilful  and  a  ready  writci. 
Of  the  wisdom  lie  displayed  in  one  unhappy  episode  of 
liis  career  there  are  not  likely  to  be  two  opinions,  but 
it  should  not  be  forgotten  that  it  was  the  ceaseless 
labour  of  his  life  to  inculcate  the  importance  of  self- 
reliance,  to  dissociate  the  national  cause  from  th.e 
claptrap  and  the  bombast  ])y  which  it  was  so  frequently 
disfigured,  and  to  teach  the  people  that  Liberal  poli- 
tics are  only  truly  adopted  when  they  are  applied 
v;ithout  respect  of  persons  and  without  fear  of  conse- 
quences. It  was  thus  that  he  laboured  during  the 
lifetime  of  O'Connell  to  check  the  place-hunting  and 
the  boasting  that  disgraced  the  Repeal  cause,  and  that 
near   the    close   of   his   life   he  calmly  and    fearlessly 


IIEYERSAL   OF   HIS   SENTENCE.  315 

risked  all  tlic  popularity  which  years  of  suffering  had 
gained  him,  by  opposing  those  who  sought  to  identify 
Irish  Liberalism  with  Italian  despotism,  and  to  draw 
down  upon  their  country  the  horrors  of  a  French 
invasion.  Few  politicians  have  sacrificed  more  to 
what  they  believed  to  be  right,  and  the  invariable 
inte"-rity  of  his  motives  has  more  tban  redeemed  the 
errors  of  his  judgment. 

The  appeal  to  the  House  of  Lords  was  heard  in 
September  1844.     On  occasions  of  this  kind,  when  the 
House  sits  to  review  the  decisions  of  the  law  courts, 
it  is  customary  to  leave  the  matter  entirely  in  the 
liands  of  the  Law  Lords,  and  the  permanent  mainte- 
nance of  the  judicial  authority  of  tlie  House  obviously 
depends  upon  the  observance  of  this  custom ;  but  there 
have  been  instances  in  which  ]>ay  Lords  have  taken  part 
in  the  decision.*     O'Connell  had  always  been  the  bitter 
enemy  of  the   House  of   Lords.      He  had  inveighed 
against  it  in  the  grossest  terms.     He  had  given  many 
of  its  members  cause  for  the  deepest  personal  animosity. 
When  the  appeal  was  to  be  heard,  a  number  of  Lay 
Lords  came  down  to  the  House  to  vote  against  him. 
The  five  Law  Lords,  who  were  present,  first  delivered 
their  opinions-  two  of  them  confirming  the  sentence 
of  the  Irish  court,  three  of  them  condemning  it.    Lord 
Denman,  in  the  c(»urse  of  liis  judgment,  stigmatised 
the  proceedings  in  Ireland  in  the  strongest  language. 
When  the  Law  Lords  had  delivered  their  judgment, 
Lord   Wharncliffe    rose    and    appealed    to    the    other 
members  of  the  House  not   to  permit  their  personal 
.'.r  r^wlitical  feelings  to  influence  a  judicial  sentence. 
The  appeal  struck  the   right  chord.      The  high  and 
honourable  feeling  that  has  almost  always  characterised 
the  House  of  Lords  reasserted  its  sway.     Every  Lay 

•  E.g.  in  tho  famous  Douglass  caso  in  17G9. 


316 

Lord  left  the  House,  and  their  bitterest  living  enemy 
was  freed  by  their  forbearance. 

The  news  of  the  reversal  of  the  sentence  was  re- 
ceived in  Ireland  with  a  bur.st  of  tlie  most  enthusiastic 
acclamations  —  bonfires  blazed  over  the  country — 
O'Connell  passed  through  the  streets  of  Dublin  in  a 
triumphal  procession.  A  perfect  delirium  of  excite- 
ment prevailed  among  his  followers ;  yet,  notwith- 
standing these  ebullitions,  the  spell  of  his  power  was 
in  a  great  measure  broken.  It  Avas  said  that  the 
months  of  imprisonment  he  had  undergone  had  shat- 
tered his  liealth  and  impaired  his  energies.  For  the 
first  time  for  many  years,  serious  dissensions  arose 
among  liis  followers.  The  Young  Ireland  party  exer- 
cised considerable  influence,  and  appeared  to  exercise 
far  more  from  the  great  talent  it  displayed.  The 
'  Nation  '  newspaper  espoused  its  cause.  It  possessed 
also  one  very  brilliant  orator,  Thomas  Francis  3Ieagher, 
a  young  man  whose  eloquence  w^as  beyond  comparison 
superior  to  that  of  any  other  rising  speaker  in  the 
country,  and  wlio,  had  he  been  placed  in  circumstances 
favourable  to  tlie  development  of  his  talent,  might 
perhaps  have  at  length  taken  his  place  among  the 
great  orators  of  Ireland.  The  Young  Irclanders,  like 
the  leaders  in  the  Kebellion  of  1798,  were  chiefly 
Protestants — very  young,  and  very  enthusiastic  men.^ 
They  differed  in  the  first  place  from  O'Connell  on  the 
question  whether  Eepealers  should  accept  ofiices  or 
promotion  from  tlie  Government.  They  argued  that 
those  who  had  done  so  had  invariably  abandoned  the 
cause — that  a  place-hunting  spirit  had  crept  into  the 
society — that  the  sordid  and  corrupt  clement  it  pro- 
duced was  actually  very  great,  and  the  discredit  and 
suspicion  it  attracted  much  greater.  ^  On  the  other 
hand,  O'Connell  maintained  that  some  concessions  were 


THE    YOUNG    IRELANDERS.  317 

accessary  to  the  mainleuance  of  the  movement  in  its 
full  extent — that  the  possession  of  place  was  the  pos- 
session of  power,  and  that  it  would  be  peculiarly  in- 
consistent  in  Repealers  to   lefnse  it,  because  one  of 
their   great    grievances    had    always    been   that   the 
Government  uniformly  confined  its  bounties  to  ttieir 
opponents.     But  the  great  characteristic  of  the  Young 
Ireland  party  was  its  advocacy  of  rebellion.     It  was 
far  more  independent  of  the  priests  than  O'Connell, 
and  was  little  swayed  by  theological  censures,  and  its 
sympathies  were  more  with  1798  than  with  1782.     It 
was  thus  (to  take  but  one  instance  from  many)  that 
:\Ieagher  declared  in  one  of  his  speeches,  '  There  arc 
but  two  plans  for  our  consideration — the  one  within 
the  law,  the  other  without  the  law.     Let  us  take  the 
latter.     I  will  then  ask  you.  Is  an  insurrection  practi- 
cable?   Prove  to  me  that  it  is,  and  I  for  one  will  vote 
for  it  this  very  night.     You  know  well,  my  friends, 
that  I  am  not  one  of  those  tame  moralists  who  say  that 
liberty  is  not  worth  a  drop  of  blood.     INlcn  who  sub- 
scribe to  such  a  maxim  are  fit  for  out-of-door  relief, 
and  for  notliing  better.     Against  this  miserable  maxim 
the  noblest  virtue  that  has  saved  and  sanctified  hu- 
manity appears  in  judgment.     From  the  blue  waters 
of  the  Bay  of  Salamis— from  the  valley  over  which  the 
sun  stood  still  and  lit  the  Israelites  to  victory— from 
tlie  cathedral  in  which  the  sword  of  Poland  has  been 
bheathed  in  the  shroud  of  Kosciusko— from  the  convent 
of  St.  Isidore,  where  the    fiery  hand   that   rent   the 
ensign  of  St.  George  upon  the  plains  of    Ulster  has 
crumbled  into   dust— from   the    sands   of  the   desert, 
where  the  wild  genius  of  the   Algerine  so   long  has 
scared  the    eagle    of  the    Pyrenees— from   the    ducal 
palace  in  this  kingdom,  where   the   memory  of  the 
gallant  Geraldine   enhances  more  than  royal   favour 


318  PANIEL    O'CONNELL. 

the  nobility  of  Lis  race — from  the  solitary  grave  within 
this  mute  city  which  a  dying  request  has  left  without 
an  epitaph — oh  !  from  every  spot  where  heroism  has 
had  a  sacrifice  or  a  triumph,  a  voice  breaks  in  upon 
the  cringing  crowd  that  cherishes  this  maxim,  crying- 
out,  Away  with  it !  away  with  it ! ' 

It  will  be  remembered  that  the  maxim  thus  de- 
nounced was  one  which  O'Connell  lost  no  opportunity 
of  extolling. 

The  influence  of  the  Young  Irelanders  w^as  more 
apparent  than  real,  for  when  the  appeal  to  arms  was 
actually  made  it  proved  absolutely  impotent  against 
the  principles  with  which  O'Connell  had  leavened  the 
people,  lliis  dissension,  however,  greatly  injured  tlie 
Eepeal  cause.  One  of  those  reactions  of  despondency 
to  wdiich  all  popular  movements  are  liable  began,  and 
the  disputes  about  the  Federal  scheme  in  1844  still 
further  weakened  the  popular  enthusiasm. 

These  disputes  preyed  greatly  on  O'Connell's  mind, 
and  the  period  that  followed  his  release  presents  a 
confused  and  chaotic  picture,  very  unlike  tliat  of 
former  years.  His  health  suddenly  gave  w^ay.  Cease- 
less labour  and  excessive  care  had  broken  a  constitution 
that  was  naturally  of  Herculean  strength.  His  voice, 
which  had  once  pealed  with  such  thrilling  power  over 
assembled  thousands,  sank  into  an  almost  inaudible 
whisper.  His  hopes,  which  had  once  been  so  buoyant 
that  they  rose  above  all  obstacles,  began  now  to  fail. 
Famine  came  w^ith  fearful  rapidity  upon  the  land,  and 
O'Connell  foresaw  the  evil,  while  he  could  not  avert  it. 
The  chill  of  death  w^as  upon  him — the  certainty  of 
failure  wrung  his  soul  witli  an  agony  the  more  bitter 
because  of  the  sanguine  hope  that  had  preceded  it. 
An  unutterable,  unmitigated  gloom  sank  upon  liis 
mind,  and  withered  and  destroyed  his  energies.     Weak 


GOES   TO    ITALY.  319 

and  prostratvj  iu  Iiealth  and  hoi^e,  he  attended  for  the 
last  time  that  Legislature  which  he  had  so  triumphantly 
entered.  In  a  speech  of  simple  and  touching  eloquence, 
entirely  fr.^e  from  every  tinge  of  his  ancient  violence, 
lie  showed  the  fearful  magnitude  of  the  calamity  im- 
pending over  the  country,,  suggested  his  remedies,  and 
with  a  solemn  and  heartfelt  pathos  implored  the  gene- 
rous aid  of  Parliament.  But  his  voice  was  so  faint  that 
but  few  could  catch  his  words.  The  fearful  change 
impressed  all  who  saw  liim.^  Old  rancour  and  party 
spirit  were  forgotten  at  the  spectacle  of  so  gi'eat  a 
sorrow.  He  was  listened  to  with  an  almost  reverential 
silence,  and  followed  by  many  evidences  of  pity  and  of 
respect.  Statesmen  of  all  parties  testified  their  sym- 
pathy by  their  enquiries.  The  Queen,  with  a  graceful 
kindness  that  should  never  be  forgotten,  sent  to  ask 
after  the  dying  agitator.  Another  visit  he  received  in 
those  last  dark  days  which  he  must  have  valued  still 
more — three  of  the  Oxford  converts  to  Kome  came  to 
assure  him  that  it  was  his  career  that  had  first  directed 
their  attention  to  the  theology  of  his  Church. 

IJeligion  was  indeed  now  tlie  only  solace  of  his  mind. 
In  his  youth  he  had  been  dissipated  and  immoral ;  but> 
a  change  had  passed  over  him,  it  is  said,  about  the' 
time  of  his  duel. with  d'Esterre,  and  his  attachment  to 
his  religion  was  sincere  and  fervent.  His  physicians 
having  ordered  him  abroad,  he  resolved  to  draw  his 
last  breath  near  the  tombs  of  the  Apostles  in  that  great 
city  which  is  the  metropolis  of  his  Church.  The  deep 
melancholy  which  the  consciousness  of  the  famine  im- 
pending over  his  countiy  produced  attended  him  on 
that  dreary  journey.  '  He  seemed,'  said  one  who 
vidted  him  in  France,  '  to  be  a  continued  prey  to  sad 

'  See   the   very  touching  description  in  Disraeli's  'Life  of  Lord  J. 
Bcntiack.* 


320  DANIEL   O'CONNELL. 

reflections.  His  face  had  grown  thin,  and  his  look 
proclaimed  an  inexpressible  sadness :  the  head  hung 
upon  the  breast,  and  the  entire  person  of  the  invalid, 
formerly  so  imposing,  \vas  greatly  weighed  dowai.* 
His  strength  failed  him  when  he  arrived  at  Genoa,  and 
in  that  city  he  expired  on  May  15,  1847. 

He  bequeathed  his  body  to  Ireland  and  his  heart  to 
the  Eternal  City.  The  former  rests  in  the  cemetery 
of  Glasnevin,  in  the  vicinity  of  Dublin  ;  the  latter  near 
the  tomb  of  Lascaris,  in  the  church  of  St.  Agatha,  at 
Ivome. 

Tliere  is  something  almost  awful  in  so  dark  a  close 
of  so  brilliant  a  career.  The  more  I  dwell  upon  the 
subject,  the  more  I  am  convinced  of  the  splendour  and 
originality  of  the  genius  and  of  the  sterling  character 
of  the  patriotism  of  O'Connell,  in  spite  of  the  calumnies 
that  surround  his  memory,  andj:he  many  and  grievous 
faults  tliat  obscured  his  life.  '  But  when  to  the  great 
services  he  rendered  to  his  country  we  oppose  the 
sectarian  and  class  warfare  that  res\iltcd  from  his 
policy,  the  fearful  elements  of  discord  he  evoked,  and 
which  he  alone  could  in  some  degree  control,  it  may 
be  questioned  whether  his  life  was  a  blessing  or  a  curse 
to  Ireland. 


THE   END. 


**  An  hiterestmg,  a  Truthful,  a-nd  a  Wholesome  Book.'' 

London  Athen^um. 


WILKES,  SHERIDAN,  FOX. 

The  Opposition  under  Geoi^ge  the  Third. 

Ly  W.   F.    RAE. 
8vo.     Cloth Price,  $2.00. 

**  A  book  whicli  embraces  vigorous  sketches  of  three  famous  men 
like  John  Wilkes,  Richard  Brinsley  Sheridan,  and  Charles  James  Fox, 
is  truly  worth  having.  The  author  is  in  evident  sympathy  with  all  three 
of  his  subjects,  and  yet  does  not  in  either  case  betray  an  undue  partial- 
ity. Although  in  no  instance  condoning  the  private  vices  and  personal 
shortcomings  of  the  characters  he  has  to  deal  with,  he  does  not  allow 
their  faults  to  influence  his  estimate  of  the  virtues,  the  talents,  and  the 
public  services,  which  entitle  each  of  these  celebrated  men  to  the  admi- 
ration and  gratitude  of  their  country. " — Chicago  Tribune. 

"  The  volume  is  interesting  to  Americans  particularly,  as  it  speaks 
of  men  who  represented  largely  English  sentiments  during  our  struggle 
for  independence ;  and  the  opposition  of  Fox  to  war  in  this  country,  as 
represented  in  these  pages,  shows  out  clearly  the  love  of  liberty  which 
iFilled  the  minds  of  this  man  and  his  worthy  colleagues  Wilkes  and  Sheri- 
dan at  that  time." — Albany  Express. 

"  All  who  relish  a  fine  portrayal  of  good  sayings,  courageous  acts, 
and  laudable  endeavor,  will  want  to  see  this  work." — Boston  Common- 
"UJcall/i. 

♦'  The  reading  public  owe  a  debt  of  gratitude  to  Mr.  Rae  for  reviv- 
ing the  acts  and  deeds  of  this  triple  combination  of  political  giants."— 
Philadelphia  Age. 

•♦The  work  bears  the  marks  of  care,  and  reflects  credit  upon  Mr. 
Rae  in  giving  new  attraction  to  old  subjects  so  desirable  to  students  of 
biographical  history." — Pittsburg  Commercial. 

•'  We  not  only  agree  with  Mr.  Rae's  conclusions,  but  we  are  grate- 
ful to  him  for  an  interesting,  a  truthful,  and  a  wholesome  book." — 
London  Athenaum. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers, 

549  "S:  551  Broadway,  N.  V. 


THE   GREVILLE   MEMOIRS. 

COMPLETE  IN  TWO    VOLS. 


A  JOURNAL  OF  THE  REIGNS  OF 

King  &8orge  lY.  &  King  William  lY. 

Cy  the  Late  CIIAS.  C.  F.  GREVILLE,  Esq., 
Clerk  of  the  Council  to  those  Sovereigns. 

Edited  by  Henry  Reeve,  Registrar  of  the  Privy  Council. 

12mo.    PRICE,  $4.00. 

This  edition  contains  the  co?nplcte  text  as  published  in  the  three  volumes 
of  the  English  edition. 


"  The  sen.^ation  created  by  tlie^e  Memoirs,  on  their  first  appcnrance,  was  not  out  of 
proportlun  to  iheir  real  interest.  Tlicy  relate  to  a  period  of  our  history  second  only  in 
importance  to  the  Revolution  of  1688;  tliey  portray  manners  which  have  now  disap- 
peared from  society,  yet  have  disappeared  so  recently  that  middle-aged  men  can  recol- 
lect them;  and  they  concern  the  conduct  of  very  eminent  persons,  of  whom  some  are 
still  living,  while  of  others  the  memory  is  so  fresh  that  they  still  seem  almost  to  be  con- 
temporaneous."—  T/ie  A  caJony. 

*'  Such  Memoirs  as  these  are  the  most  interesting  contributions  to  history  that  can 
be  made,  and  the  most  vahi.ible  as  well.  The  man  deserves  gratitude  from  his  pos- 
terity who,  being  placed  in  the  midst  of  e\ents  that  have  any  importance,  and  of  people 
who  bear  anj  considerable  part  in  them,  sits  down  day  by  day  and  makes  a  record  of 
his  observations." — Buffalo  Courier. 

"The  Greville  Memoirs,  already  in  a  third  edition  in  London,  in  little  more  than 
two  months,  have  b:en  republished  by  D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York.  The  three 
loosely-printed  English  volumes  are  here  given  in  two,  withuut  the  slightest  abridg- 
ment, and  the  price,  which  is  nine  dollars  across  the  water,  here  is  only  four.  It 
is  not  too  much  to  say  that  this  work,  though  not  so  ambitious  in  its  style  as  Horace 
Walp^le's  well-known  'Correspondence,'  is  much  more  interesting.  In  a  word,  these 
Greville  Memoirs  sipply  valuable  mateiials  not  al-ne  for  political,  but  also  for  social 
history  during  the  time  they  cover.  They  are  additionally  attractive  from  the  large 
quantity  of  racy  anecdotes  which  they  contain." — Philadelphia  Press. 

"  These  are  a  few  among  many  illustrations  of  the  pleasant,  gossipy  information  con- 
veyed in  these  Memoirs,  whose  great  charm  is  the  free  ar.d  straightforward  manner  in 
which  the  writer  chronicles  his  Impressions  of  men  and  events." — Boston  Daily  Globe. 

"  As  will  be  seen,  these  volumes  are  of  remarkable  interest,  and  fully  justify  the  en^ 
comiums  that  heralded  their  appearance  in  this  country.  They  will  attract  a  large  cir- 
cle of  readers  here,  who  will  find  in  their  gossipy  pages  an  almost  inexhaustible  fund  0/ 
instruction  and  amusement." — Boston  Saturday  Ez'eniiig  Gazette. 

"Since  the  publication  of  Horace  Walpole's  Letters,  no  book  of  greater  historical 
interest  has  seen  the  Hjjht  than  the  Greville  Memoirs.  It  throws  a  curious,  and,  wc 
may  almost  say,  a  terrible  light  on  the  conduct  and  character  of  the  public  men  in  Kng- 
land  under  the  reigns  of  George  lY.  and  William  IV.  Its  descriptions  of  those  kings 
and  their  kinsfolk  are  never  likely  to  be  forgotten." — -V.  Y.  Times. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  549  &  551  Broadway,  N.  Y. 


THE    LIFE    OF 

HIS  ROYAL  HIGHNESS 

THE  PRINCE  CONSORT. 

By   THEODORE    MARTIN. 

JFii/t  Portraits  and  Views.     Volume  the  First,     ximo.     Cloth.    Price,  $3.00. 


"The book,  indeed,  Is  more  comprehensive  than  its  title  imphes.  Puiportine  to 
tdl  the  life  of  the  Prince  Consort,  it  includes  a  scarcely  less  minute  biography— whu* 
may  be  regarded  as  almost  an  autobiography— of  the  Queen  herself;  and,  when  it  is 
complete,  it  will  probably  present  a  more  minute  history  of  the  domestic  life  of  a  aueen 
»nd  her  '  master '  (the  term  is  Her  Majesty's)  than  has  ever  before  appeared,  —i'rom 
ike  Athenaum.  ,.,  ,,  ,     , 

"  Mr  Martin  has  accomplished  his  task  with  a  success  which  could  scarcely  have 
been  anticipated.  His  biography  of  Prince  Albert  would  be  valuable  and  instrucUve 
«ven  if  it  were  addressed  to  remote  and  indifferent  readers  who  had  no  special  interest 
in  the  English  court  or  in  the  royal  family.  Prince  Albert's  actual  celebrity  is  insepa- 
lably  associated  with  the  high  position  which  he  occupied,  but  his  claim  to  permanent 
icpuution  depends  on  the  moral  and  intellectual  qualities  which  were  smgular  y 
adapted  to  the  circumstances  of  his  career.  In  any  rank  of  life  he  would  probably 
have  attained  distinction;  but  his  prudence,  his  self-denial,  and  his  apbtude  for  acquir- 
ing practical  knowledge,  could  scarcely  have  found  a  more  suitable  field  of  exercise 
than  in  his  peculiar  situation  as  the  acknowledged  head  of  a  constituuonal  monarchy. 
From  the  Saturday  Review.  ^  vu., 

"  The  author  writes  with  dignity  and  grace,  he  values  his  subject,  and  treats  brni 
with  a  certain  courtly  reverence,  yet  never  once  sinks  into  the  panegyrist,  andwhile 
apparently  most  frank-so  frank,  that  the  reticent  English  people  may  feel  the  mtimacy 
dI  his  domestic  narrarives  almost  painful— he  is  never  once  betrayed  into  a  momentary 
indiscretion.  The  almost  idyllic  beauty  of  the  relation  between  the  Pnpce  Consort 
and  the  Queen  comes  out  as  fully  as  in  all  previous  histories  of  that  relation— and  we 
have  now  had  three— as  does  also  a  good  deal  of  evidence  as  to  the  Queen's  ovvn 
character,  hitherto  always  kept  down,  and,  as  it  were,  self  effaced  in  pubhcaliona 
written  or  sanctioned  by  herself."— /^r,7W  the  London  Spectator.  ,      «•     . 

"  Of  the  abilities  which  have  been  claimed  for  the  Pnnce  Consort,  this  work  affords 
us  small  means  of  judsing.  But  of  his  wisdom,  strong  sense  of  duty,  and  great  dignity 
and  purity  of  character,  the  volume  furnishes  ample  evidence.  In  this  way  it  will  be 
of  ser%ice  to  any  one  who  reads  \\^"—From  tJie  New  York  Evem»f  Post.    ^ 

"  There  is  a  striking  contrast  between  this  volume  and  the  OreviUe  Memoirs,  wnicti 
rcl.nte  to  a  perii->d  in  English  history  immediately  preceding  Prince  Albert's  mamage 
with  Queen  Victoria  Radical  changes  were  effected  in  court-life  by  Victoria  s  acccs- 
Bion  to  the  throne.  ...  In  the  work  before  us,  which  is  the  unfolding  of  a  model  home- 
life,  a  life  in  fact  unrivaled  in  the  abodes  of  modem  royalty,  there  is  nothing  but  what 
thepurcst  mind  can  read  with  real  pleasure  and  profit.  ..,./-     r  v  1       • 

"  Mr  Martin  draws  a  most  exquisite  portraiture  of  the  mamed  life  of  the  royal  pair, 
which  seems  to  have  been  as  neariy  perfect  as  any  thing  human  can  be.  The  volume 
closes  shortly  after  the  Revolution  of  1848,  at  Paris,  when  Louis  Philippe  and  his  hap- 
less queen  were  fleeing  to  Engbnd  in  search  of  an  .nsylum  from  the  fearful  forebodings 
which  overhung  their  pathway.  It  was  a  trj-ing  ume  for  England,  but^ says  Mr.  Mar- 
tin  with  true  dramatic  effect  m  the  closing  passages  of  his  book :' When  the  storm 
burst,  it  found  him  prepared.  In  rising  to  meet  the  difficulties  of  the  hour,  the  prince 
found  the  best  support  in  the  cheerful  courage  of  the  queen,  who  on  the  4lh  of 
April  of  that  same  year  wrote  to  King  Leopold  :  *  I  never  was  calmer  and  quieter  a 
less  nervous.  Great  events  make  me  calm ;  it  is  only  tnfles  that  imtate  my  nerves. 
Thus  ends  the  first  volume  of  one  of  the  most  important  biographies  of  the  present 
time.  The  second  volume  will  follow  as  soon  as  its  preparauon  can  be  effected.  - 
/■r^m  the  Hat  t/o7-d  Evening  Post. 

D.  APPLETON  &  CO.,  Publishers,  549  &  551  Broadway,  N.  Y, 


Memoirs  of  General  William  T.  Skrman, 

WRITTEN    BY    HIMSELF. 

Covipleic  in  two  volumes.     Small  Zvo,  i,oo  pages  each.    Price  in  blue  cloth,  $5.50; 
sheep,  $7.00;  half  turkey,  ^Z.^o;  full  turkey,  $12.00. 


From  the  Richmond  IVhig. 
"  He  writes  well.    His  style  is  terse,  pointed,  and  incisive.    He  expresses  his  opin- 
ions of  men  and  things  witli  independence  and  freedom." 

From  iJte  Boston  Post. 
"The  book  written  by  General  Sherman  is  as  striking  a  record  of  military  experi- 
ence as  the  modern  world  has  ever  read.     It  is  rare  that  a  gre.Tt  commander  is  a  good 
writer,  the  same  hand  not  often  being  gifted  with  the  capacity  to  hold  the  sword  and 
the  pen  with  equal  skill." 

From  the  Springfield  Union. 
"General  Sherman's  st^'Ie  becomes  picturesque  and  vivid  in  treating  of  the  march 
to  the  sea,  which,  indeed,  has  been  seized  upon  by  all  our  writers  as  the  most  romantic 
passage  of  the  war." 

From  the  Philadelphia  Daily  Telegraph. 
"With  a  few  exceptions,  the  book  is  remarkably  temperate,  and  it  is  an  eminently 
readable  and  most  interesting  narrative  of  a  brilliant  military  career." 

From  the  Saturday  Evening  Gazette. 
"We  recognize  him  as  one  of  the  brilliant  soldiers  of  bis  cm,  nnd  ns  a  mnn  to  whom 
his  country  is  veiy  la'-gcly  indebted  for  what  he  now  informs  us  was  the  conception,  as 
well  as  the  carrying  out,  of  one  of  the  master-strokes  of  the  war." 

From  the  X.  V.  Herald. 
"Sherman  shows  that  he  can  wield  the  pen  as  well  as  the  sword.    His  style  is  as 
much  his  own  as  that  of  Ca;sar  or  Napoleon.     It  is  a  winning  style.     We  see  a  gifted 
man  telling  his  life  in  a  plain,  artless  fashion,  but  wiih  trenchant  rhetoric." 

From  the  Tribune. 

"Of  the  events  of  the  Civil  War,  in  which  he  has  won  his  illustrious  fame,  he  has 
given  a  singularly  lucid  and  instructive  description  ;  his  strictures  on  military  affairs 
are  judicious  and  weighty;  but  to  many  readers  his  portraitures  of  sgenes  and  inci- 
dents of  less  wide-spread  publicity,  revealing  by  side-glances  the  tr.-»its  of  a  powerful 
and,  in  some  sense,  a  unique  personal  character,  will  prove  the  most  interesting  por- 
tions of  the  work." 

From  the  iV.  J '.  Times. 

"These  memoirs  are  by  far  the  most  interesting  and  important  contribution  yet 
made  to  the  military'  history  of  the  rebellion  by  any  of  the  leading  actors  in  the  great 
struggle.  The  personal  historj'  of  so  marked  a  man  must  always  possess  extraordinary 
interest.  When  it  is  related  by  the  man  himself,  and  in  that  peculiarly  mcy  style 
which  General  Sherman's  letters  and  speeches  have  made  familiar  to  the  public,  it  not 
only  becomes  absorbing  but  fascinating." 

From  the  ETcning  Post. 
"  General  Sherman  has  told  his  story  with  the  most  entire  unreserve,  and  the  story 
Is  one  which  Americans  will  be  proud  to  read.  We  cannot  help  a  feeling  of  satisfac- 
tion in  being  of  the  same  race  and  the  same  country  with  such  a  man.  We  have  here 
the  picture  of  a  person  resolute  yet  cautious,  bold  yet  prudent,  confident  yet  modest 
— a  man  of  action  to  his  finger-ends,  yet  withal  somediing  of  a  poet;  we  see  all  through 
the  book  the  evidences  of  a  chivalrous  mind  and  of  an  intellect  of  singular  force  and 
precision." 

D,  APPLE  TON  vS-  CO.,  Publishers,  549  d-  551  Broadivay,  N.  Y, 


This  book  is  a  preservation  photocopy. 

It  is  made  in  compliance  with  copyright  law 

and  produced  on  acid-free  archival 

60#  book  weight  paper 

which  meets  the  requirements  of 

ANSI/NISO  Z39.48-1992  (permanence  of  paper) 

Preservation  photocopying  and  binding 

by 

Acme  Bookbinding 

Charlestown,  Massachusetts 


2003 


DATE  DUE 


^^ 


^h 


UNIVERSITY  PRODUCTS,  INC.    #859-5503 


BOSTON   COLLEGE 


3   9031    025   75332   8 


